the righteous man's refuge · chapter iv: god hath a sp ecial and peculiar care of his own...
TRANSCRIPT
The Righteous Man's Refuge
by John Flavel
Table of Contents
The Epistle to the Reader
Chapter I: The Text Considered
Chapter II: Times and Seasons Appointed by God for the Pouring out
of His Indignation Upon the World
Chapter III: God's Own People Ought to be Suitably Affected with
those Judgments that Befal the Nation
Chapter IV: God Hath a Special and Peculiar Care of His Own People
in theDays of His Indignation
Chapter V: God Usually Premonisheth the World, Especially His
Own People, of His Judgments Before they Befal Them
Chapter VI: God's Attributes, Promises, and Providences, are
Prepared for the Security of his People
Chapter VII: Divine Wisdom, as a Second Chamber of Security to the
Saints in Difficult Times
Chapter VIII: Divine Faithfulness, as a Third Chamber of Security to
the People of God, in Times of Distress and Danger
Chapter IX: The Unchangeableness of God, as a Fourth Chamber of
Refuge and Rest in Times of Trouble
Chapter X: The Care of God for His People in Times of Trouble, as
the Fifth Chamber of Rest to Believers
Chapter XI: The Love of God, as a Resting-Place to Believing Souls in
Evil Times
Chapter XII: Consectaries
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER
Christian Reader,
"IF* Heinsius, when he had shut up himself in the library at Leyden,
reckoned himself placed in the very lap of eternity, because he
conversed there with so many Divine souls, and professed he took his
seat in it with so lofty a spirit and sweet content, that he heartily
pitied all the great and rich men of the world, that were ignorant of
the happiness he there daily enjoyed;" How much more may that
soul rejoice in its own happiness, who hath shut himself up in the
chambers of the Divine Attributes, and exerciseth pity for the
exposed and miserable multitude that are left as a prey to the
temptations and troubles of the world.
That the days are evil, is a truth preached to us by the convincing
voice of sense; and that they are like to be worse, few can doubt that
look into the moral causes of evil times, the impudent height of sin,
or into the prophecies relating to these latter days; for whom the
sharpest sufferings are appointed to make way for the sweetest
mercies. A faithful † watchman of our own hath given us fresh and
late warning in these words of truth: Hath God said nothing? doth
faith see nothing of a flood coming upon us? Is there such a deluge of
sin among us, and doth not that prophesy to us a deluge of wrath?
Lift up your eyes, Christians, stand, and look through the land,
eastward and westward, northward and southward, and tell me what
you see? Behold, a flood cometh: a flood of sin is already broken
forth upon us, the fountains of the great deeps are broken up, and
the windows of hell are opened, &c. In such an evil day as this is,
happy is the soul that hath made God its refuge, even the most high
God its habitation. He shall sit Noah-like, Mediis tranquillus in
undis, safe from the fear of evil. In consideration of the distress of
many unprovided souls for the misery that is coming on them, and
not knowing how short my time will be useful to any, (for I know it
cannot be long) I have endeavoured once more the assistance of poor
Christians in these two small treatises, one of fear, the other of
preparation for the worst of times; which, it may be, is the last help I
shall this way be able to afford them. It is therefore my earnest
request to all that fear the Lord, and tremble at his word, to redeem
their time with double diligence, because the days are evil; to clear
up their interest in Christ and the promises, lest the darkness of their
spiritual estate, meeeting with such a night of outward darkness,
overwhelm them with terrors insupportable. Some help is offered in
this treatise to direct the gracious soul to its rest in God: May the
blessings of his Spirit accompany them, and bless them to the soul of
him that readeth; it will be a matter of joy beyond all earthly joys to
the heart of,
Thy friend and servant in Christ,
JOHN FLAVEL.
Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment,
until the indignation be over-past. ISA. 26:20
CHAPTER I
Wherein the literal and real importance of the text is considered, the
doctrine propounded, and the method of the following discourse
stated.
Sect. I. MAN being a prudent and prospecting creature, can never be
satisfied with present safety, except he may also see himself well
secured against future dangers. Upon all appearance of trouble, it is
natural for him to seek a refuge, that he may be able to shun what he
is loath to suffer, and survive those calamities which will ruin the
defenceless and exposed multitude. Natural men seek refuge in
natural things. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an
high wall in his own conceit," Prov. 18:11. Hypocrites make lies their
refuge, and under falsehood do they hide themselves, Isa. 28:15. not
doubting but they shall stand dry and safe, when the over-flowing
flood lays all others under water. But,
Godly men make God himself their hiding place, to him they have
still betaken themselves in all ages, as often as calamities have
befallen the world, Psal. 46:1. "God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble." As chickens run under the wings of the hen
for safety when the kite hovers over them, so do they fly to their God
for sanctuary, Psal. 56:3. "At what time I am afraid I will trust in
thee;" q. d. Lord, if a storm of trouble at any time overtake me, I will
make bold to come under thy roof for shelter; and indeed not so bold
as welcome: it is no presumption in them after so gracious an
invitation from their God, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers."
My friends, a sound of trouble is in our ears, the clouds gather and
blacken upon us more and more: Distress of nations with perplexity
seems to be near, our day hastens to an end, and the shadows of the
night are stretching forth upon us. What greater service therefore
can I do for your souls, than by the light of this scripture (as with a
candle in my hand) to lead you to your chambers, and shew you your
lodgings in the attributes and promises of God, before I take my
leave of you, and bid you good night.
O with what satisfaction should I part with you, were I but sure to
leave you under Christ's wings! It was Christ's lamentation over
Jerusalem that they should not be gathered under his wings, when
the Roman eagle was ready to hover over that city; and you know
how dear they paid for their obstinacy and infidelity. Be warned by
that dreadful example, and among the rest of your mercies bless God
heartily for this, that so sweet a voice sounds from heaven in your
ears this day, this day of frights and troubles; "Come, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers," &c.
This chapter contains a lovely song fitted for the lips of God's Israel,
notwithstanding their sad captivity; for their God was with them in
Babylon, and cheered their hearts there with many promises of
deliverance, and in the mystical sense it relates to the New
Testament churches, of whose troubles, protections, and
deliverances, the Jews in Babylon were a type.
This chapter, though full of excellent and seasonable truths, will be
too long to analize; it shall suffice to search back only to the 17th
verse, where you find the poor captivated church under despondency
of mind, comparing her condition to that of a woman in travail, who
hath many sharp pains and bitter throes, yet cannot be delivered,
much like that in 2 Kings 19:3. "The children are come to the birth,
and there is no strength to bring forth."
Against this discouragement a double relief is applied in the
following verses; the one is a promise of full deliverance at last, the
other an invitation into a sure sanctuary and place of defence for the
present, until the time of their full deliverance came. The promise we
have in verse 19. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead
body shall they arise: awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust," &c.
Their captivity was a civil death, and Babylon as a grave to them. So
it is elsewhere described, Ezek. 37:1, 2, 3, 14. "I will open your graves,
and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you into the
land of Israel." And therefore their deliverance is carried under the
notion of a resurrection in that promise.
Object. Yea, (might they reply) the hopes of deliverance at last is
some comfort, but alas, that may be far off: How shall we subsist till
then?
Solut. Well enough, for as you have in that promise a sure ground of
deliverance at last, so in the interim here is a gracious invitation into
a place of security for the present, Come, my people, enter thou into
thy chambers. In which invitation four things call for our close
attention.
1. The form of the invitation, including in it the qualified subject,
Come, my people. God's own peculiar people, who have chosen God
for their protection, and resigned up themselves sincerely to him in
the covenant, are the persons here invited, the same which he before
called the righteous nation that kept the truth, ver. 2. he means those
that remained faithful to God, as many of them did in Babylon,
witness their sorrow for Sion, Psal. 137 per totum; and their solemn
appeal to God, that their hearts were not turned back, nor had their
steps declined though they were sore broken in the place of dragons,
and covered with the shadow of death, Psal. 44:18, 19, 20. These are
the people invited to the chambers of security. And the form of
invitation is full of tender compassion; Come, my people; like a
tender father who sees a storm coming upon his children in the
fields, and takes them by the hand saying, Come away, my dear
children, hasten home with me, lest the storm over-take you; or as
the Lord said to Noah before the deluge, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark, and God shut him in, Gen. 7:1, 16. This is the form of
invitation, Come, my people.
2. The privilege invited to; Enter thou into thy chambers. There is
some variety, and indeed variety rather than contrariety in the
exposition of these words.
In this all are agreed, that by their chambers is not meant the
chambers of their own houses, Ezek. 21:14. for alas, their houses
were left unto them desolate; and if not, yet they could be no security
to them now, when neither their own houses nor their fortified city
was able to defend them before.
Grotius* expounds it of the grave, and makes these chambers the
same with the chambers of death. Ite in cubicula, i.e. sepulchra
vestra. The grave indeed is a place of security, where God sometimes
hides some of his people in troublesome times, as it is plain in Isa.
57:1, 2. but I cannot allow this to be the sense of this text; God doth
not comfort his captives with a natural against a civil death, but with
protection in their troubles upon earth, as is evident from the scope
of the whole chapter.
By chambers therefore, others understand the chambers of Divine
Providence, where the saints are hid in evil days. So our Annotators
on the place, and no doubt but this is in part the special intendment
of the text.
Others understand the attributes and promises of God to be here
meant, as well as his providence. And I conceive all three make the
sense of the text full, i.e. the Divine attributes engaged in the
promises, and exercised or actuated in the providences of God; these
are the sanctuaries and refuges of God's people in days of trouble.
Calvin understands it of the quiet repose of the believer's mind in
God, but that is rather the effect of his security, than the place of it. It
is God's attributes, or his name (which is the same thing) to which
the righteous fly and are safe, Prov. 18:10.
Object. But you will, say, why are they called their chambers? Those
attributes are not theirs, but God's.
Solut. The answer is easy; though they be God's properties, yet they
are his people's privileges and benefits; for when God makes over
himself to them in covenant to be their God, he doth, as it were,
deliver to them the keys of all his attributes for their benefit and
security; and is as if he should say, my wisdom is yours, to contrive
for your good; my power is yours, to protect your persons; my mercy
yours, to forgive your sins; my all-sufficiency yours to supply your
wants; all that I am, and all that I have, is for your benefit and
comfort. These are the chambers provided for the saints' lodgings,
and into these they are invited to enter. Enter thou into thy
chambers. By entering into them understand their actual faith
exercised in acts of affiance and resignation to God in all their
dangers. So Psal. 56:3. "At what time I am afraid (saith David) I will
trust in thee:" q. d. Lord, if a storm come I will make bold to shelter
myself from it under thy wings by faith; look, as unbelief shuts the
doors of all God's attributes and promises against us; so faith opens
them all to the soul: and so much of the privilege invited to, which is
the second thing.
3. We have here a needful caution for the securing of this privilege to
ourselves in evil times, shut thy doors about thee. Or as the Syriac
renders בעדך behind or after thee, i.e. saith Calvin, Diligenter
cavendum ne ulla rimula diabolo ad nos pateat. Care must be taken
that no passage be left open for the devil to creep in after us, and
drive us out of our refuge; for so it falls out too often with God's
people when they are at rest in God's name or promises, Satan creeps
in by unbelieving doubts and puzzling objections, and beats them out
of their refuge back again into trouble; it is therefore of great
concernment, in such times especially, not to give place to the devil,
as the phrase is, Eph. 4:17. but cleave to God by a resolved reliance.
4. Lastly, We are to note with what arguments or motives they are
pressed to betake themselves to this refuge. There are two found in
the text, the one working upon their fear, the other upon their hope.
1. That which works upon their fear is a supposition of a storm
coming, the indignation of God will fall like a tempest; this is
supposed in the text, and plainly expressed in the words following,
"For the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth," ver. 21.
2. The other is fitted to work upon their hope, though his indignation
fall like a storm, yet it will not continue long; it shall be but for a
moment, better days and more comfortable dispensations will follow.
From all which the general observation is this,
Doct. That the attributes, promises, and providences of God, are the
chambers of rest and security, in which his people are to hide
themselves, when they foresee the storms of his indignation coming
upon the world.
"The name of the Lord (saith Solomon) is a strong tower; the
righteous run into it, and are safe," Prov. 18:10. And his attributes
are his name, Exod. 34:5. For by them he is known as a man is
known by his name, and this his name is a strong tower for his
people's security; now what is the use and end of a tower in a city,
but to receive and secure the inhabitants when the outworks are
beaten to the ground, the wall scaled, and the houses left desolate?
And as it is here resembled to a tower, so in Isa. 33:16. it is shadowed
out unto us by a munition of rocks, "His place of defence shall be a
munition of rocks." How secure is that person that is invironed with
rocks on every side? Yea, you will say, but yet a rock is but a cold and
barren refuge; though other enemies cannot, yet hunger and thirst
can invade and kill him there. No, in this rock is a storehouse of
provision, as well as a magazine for defence; so it follows, "Bread
shall be given him, and his water shall be sure."
And sometimes it is resembled to us by the wings of a fowl, spread
with much tenderness over her young for their defence, Ps. 57:1.
"Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these
calamities be overpast." So Psal. 17:8. "Keep me as the apple of thine
eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings." No part of the body
hath more guards upon it than the apple of the eye. God is as careful
to preserve his people as men are to preserve their eyes; and he that
toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye. But we need not go
from one metaphor to another to shew you where the saint's refuge is
in time of danger; you have a whole bundle of them lying together in
that one scripture, Psal. 18:2. "The Lord is my rock and my fortress,
and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my
buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." Where
you find all kinds of defence, whether natural or artificial, under a
pleasant variety of apt metaphors, ascribed to God for the security of
his people.
Now for the casting of this great point into as easy and profitable a
method as I can; I shall resolve this general truth into these following
propositions, which are implied or expressed in the text and doctrine
thence deduced; and the first is this;
Propositions
Prop. 1. That there are times and seasons appointed by God for the
pouring out of his indignation upon the world.
Prop. 2. That God's own people are concerned in, and ought to be
affected with those judgments.
Prop. 3. That God hath a special and particular care of his people in
the days of his indignation.
Prop. 4. That God usually premonishes the world, especially his own
people, of his judgments before they befal them.
Prop. 5. That God's attributes, promises, and providences are
prepared for the security of his people, in the greatest distresses that
befal them in the world.
Prop. 6. That none but God's people are taken into those chambers of
security, or can expect his special protection in evil times.
And then I shall apply the whole in the proper uses of it.
CHAPTER II
Demonstrating the first proposition, that there are times and seasons
appointed by God for the pouring out of his indignation upon the
world.
Sect. I. THIS is plainly implied in the text, that there are times of
indignation appointed to befal the world; yea, and more than this;
not only that such times shall come, but the duration and
continuance is also under an appointment. "Hide thyself for a little
moment, until the indignation be over-past." The prophet tells us in
Zeph. 2:2. that these stormy times are under a decree, and that
decree is there compared to a pregnant woman which is to go out her
appointed months, and then to travail and bring forth: Even so it is
in the judgments God brings upon the world. We see them not in the
days of provocation, sed adhuc foetus in utero latent, but all this
while they are in the womb of the decree, and at the appointed
season they shall become visible to the world. As there are in nature
fair halcyon days, and cloudy, over-cast, and stormy: So it is in
providences, Eccl. 7:14. "God hath set the one over-against the
other." Yea, one is the occasion of the other; for look as the sun in a
hot day exhales abundance of vapours from the earth and sea, these
occasion showers, thunder, and tempests, and those again clear the
air, and dispose it to fair weather again. So it is here, prosperity is the
occasion of abundance of sin, this brings on adversity from the
justice of God to correct it; adversity being sanctified, humbles,
reforms, and purges the people of God, and this again by mercy
procures their prosperity: So you find the account stated in Psal.
107:17. "Fools because of their iniquities are afflicted, then they cry
to the Lord in their troubles, and he saveth them out of their
distresses."
And this appointment of times of distress is both profitable and
necessary for the world, especially God's own people in it.
In general, hereby the being and righteousness of God is cleared and
vindicated against the atheism and infidelity of the world, Psal. 9:16.
"The Lord is known by the judgments that he executeth." Impunity is
the occasion of many atheistical thoughts in the world, Jer. 48:11.
"Moab hath been at ease from his youth; and he hath settled on his
lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath
he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his
scent is not changed." So Psal. 55:19. "Because they have no changes,
therefore they fear not God." Kingdoms, families, and particular
persons, like standing water and ponds, are apt to corrupt by long
continued peace and prosperity; the Lord therefore sees it necessary
to purge the world by his judgments; "When thy judgments are in the
earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Those
sermons that God preaches from heaven by the terrible voice of his
judgments, startle and rouse the secure world, more than all the
warnings and exhortations of his ministers could ever do. Those that
slept securely under our ministry, will fear and tremble under his
rods; those that are without faith, are not without sense and feeling,
their own eyes will affect their hearts, though our words could make
no impression on them.
Sect. 2. But of what use soever these national judgments are to
others, to be sure they shall be beneficial to God's own people; when
others die by fear, they shall live by faith; if they be baneful poison to
the wicked, they shall be healthful physic to the godly. For,
1. By these calamities God will mortify and purge their corruptions;
this winter weather shall be useful to destroy and rot those rank
weeds, which the summer of prosperity bred, Isa. 27:9. "By this
therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged." Physic in its own
nature is griping and unpleasant, but very useful and necessary to
purge the body from noxious and malignant humours, which
retained, may put life itself in hazard: And it is with the body politic,
as with the body natural.
2. National judgments drive the people of God nearer to him, and to
one another; they drive the people of God to their knees, and make
them pray more frequently, more fervently, and more feelingly than
they ever were wont to do; in this posture you find them in ver. 8, 9.
of this chapter. "Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we
waited for thee, the desire of our souls is to thy name, and to the
remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night,
yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early."
3. In a word, by these distractions and distresses of nations, the
people of God are more weaned from the world, and made to long
more vehemently after heaven; being now convinced by experience
that this is not their rest. When all things are tranquil and
prosperous, God's own people are but too apt to fall asleep and
dream of pleasure and rest on earth, to say as Job in his prosperity,
"I shall die in my nest, I shall multiply my days as the sand." And
then are their heads and hearts filled with many projects and
designs, to promote their comforts, and make provision for their
accommodations on earth: the multiplicity of earthly cares and
comforts take up their time and thoughts too much, and make them
that they mind death and eternity too little. But saith God, this must
not be so, things must not go on at this rate, the prosperous world
must not thus enchant my people; I must imbitter the earth that I
may thereby sweeten heaven the more to them; when they find no
rest below, they will surely seek it above.
These, and such like, are the gracious designs and ends of God in
shaking the world by his terrible judgments; but yet, though national
troubles must necessarily come, the wisest of men cannot positively
determine the precise time of those judgments; we may indeed, by
the signs of the times, discern their near approach; yet our judgment
can be but probable and conjectural, seeing there are tacit conditions
in the dreadfulest threatenings, Jer. 18:7, 8. Jonah 3:9, 10. And such
is the merciful nature of God, that he oft-times turns away his anger
from his people, when it seems ready to pour down upon them, Psal.
78:38. The consideration whereof no way indulges security, but
encourages to repentance and greater fervency in prayer.
CHAPTER III
Opening and confirming the second proposition, viz. That God's own
people are much concerned in, and ought to be suitably affected with
those judgments that befal the nation wherein they live.
Sect. I. IF God's people have no concernment in these things, why are
they called upon in this text, to turn into their chambers, hide
themselves, and shut their doors, till the indignation be over-past?
Certainly though God hath better provided for them than others, yet
they are two ways concerned in these cases as much as others: viz.
1. Upon a political account.
2. Upon a religious account
1. Upon a political account, as they are members of the community,
and so are equally concerned in the good or evil that befals the
nation in which they live; their cabins must follow the fate of the ship
in which they sail: their lives, liberties, estates, and interest sink and
swim with the Public. The good figs were carried away with the bad,
Jer. 24:5. In these outward respects it often-times bears as hard
upon the righteous as upon the wicked. Ezek. 21:3. "I will draw forth
my soul out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous
and the wicked." In these outward respects, as it is with the good, so
with the sinner, Eccl. 9:2. The same fire that burns the dry tree,
often-times burns the green tree too, Ezek. 20:47. Grace is above all
hazards, but creature-enjoyments and comforts are not. The sins of
the Sodomites involves not only their own houses and estates, but
Lot's also, in the ruin and overthrow; wicked men often fare the
better for the company of the godly, and the godly often fare the
worse for the company of the wicked.
And it is not to be wondered at, if we consider that even the saints
themselves have an hand in the provocation of these judgments, as
well as others, Deut. 32:19. "And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred
them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters." We
have contributed to the common heap of guilt, and therefore must
justify God if we partake with others in the common calamity.
2. They are greatly concerned in such judgments upon a religious
and Christian account, for it is usual for the flood of God's judgments
not only to sweep away our civil and natural, but our spiritual and
best enjoyments and comforts. Thus the ordinances of God ceased in
Babylon, and there the faithful bewailed their misery upon that
account, Psal. 137. per totum; "we wept when we remembered thee,
O Zion." Not only Israel flies, but the ark is taken prisoner by the
enemy, 1 Sam. 4:11. And you find the people of God more deeply
concerned upon this account, than for all their outward losses and
other sufferings, Zeph. 3:18. "I will gather them of thee that are
sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, to whom the reproach of it was
a burthen." For by how much our souls are more excellent than our
bodies, and the concerns of eternity over-balance those of time; by so
much the more are we concerned in the loss of our spiritual, more
than of our temporal mercies and enjoyments.
Grace indeed cannot be lost, but the means and instruments by
which it is begotten may; the golden candlestick is one of the
moveables in God's house, Rev. 2:5.
Thus you see a two-fold concernment that the people of God have in
the effects of national judgments.
Sect. 2. This being so, how should all that fear God be affected with
the appearances and signs of his indignation? So was David, Psal.
119:120. "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy
judgments." He that feared not a bear, a lion, a Goliah, yet trembleth
at God's judgment. So did Habakkuk, chap. 3 ver. 16. "When I heard,
my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered
into my bones." Expressions denoting the deepest seizures of fear
and greatest consternations: not that I would persuade you to such
slavish fear or unchristian dejection, as it is not only sinful in itself,
but the cause and inlet of many other sins; but to a due sense both of
the evils of misery that will befal the nation when God's indignation
comes upon it; and the evils of sin that have incensed it; and to such
a fear of both as may seasonably awaken us to the use of all
preventing remedies. And, First,
1. O that all would lay to heart the national miseries that God's
indignation threatens upon us. It is said, Psal. 107:34. "A fruitful
land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell
therein." It was long since told England by one of its faithful
watchmen*, 'The nation and church in which we are, are the
common ship in which we are all embarked, and if this in judgment
be cast away, whether dashed against the rocks of any foreign power,
or swallowed up in the quicksands of domestic divisions, it must
need hazard all the passengers: Or if you were sure, that for your
parts you might be safe, would it not be a bitter thing to stand upon
the shore, and see such a glorious vessel as this nation is, to be cast
away? To see this glorious land defaced, the blessed gospel polluted,
the golden candlestick removed, it cannot but affect men that have
any bowels.
Or if this move you not, yet to see a stranger to lord it in thy
habitation, and thy dwelling place to cast thee out; for your
delightsome dwellings, your fruitful, pleasant, and well tilled fields to
be made a prey; for you to sow, and another to reap, Impius has
segetes; for the delicate women upon whom the wind must not blow,
to be exposed to the lust and cruelty of an enemy, and be glad to fly
away naked to prolong a miserable life, which they would be glad to
part with for death, were it not for fear of the exchange. For the
tender mother to look upon the child of her womb, and consider,
must this child in whom I have placed the hope of my age; for,
Omnis in Ascanio stat chari cura parentis;
'He that hath been so tenderly brought up, must he fall into the
rough hands of a bloody soldier, skilful to destroy? It had been well
for me if God had given me dry breasts, or a miscarrying womb,
rather than to bring forth children unto murderers; or if you might
be safe, how could you endure to see the miseries that should come
upon your people, and the destruction of your kindred.' Thus far he.
But alas! What security have any of us as to our earthly comforts
from the common calamity? We may please ourselves as Baruch did,
Jer. 45:4, 5. and dream of exemption, but by so much the greater will
our distress be, when it shall surprize us.
2. You that are the people of God ought to be deeply affected with the
spiritual miseries that threaten us in the day of God's indignation: do
you consider what the removing the candlestick out of its place is? A
departing gospel, the going down of the sun upon the prophets, the
loss of your sweet sabbaths and gospel feasts, and the gross darkness
of popery to fill the earth: O it is hard parting with these things. It is
said, 1 Sam. 7:2. when the ark was removed, "that all the house of
Israel lamented after the Lord." Pity your own souls, and be deeply
affected with the misery of others, the poor Christless world who are
like to perish for want of vision, Prov. 29:18. In the year 1072, saith
Matthew Paris, preaching was suppressed at Rome, and then letters
were framed by some as coming from hell, in which the devil gives
them thanks for the multitude of souls sent to him that year.
3. But especially labour to affect your hearts with the sins that have
incensed God's indignation: So did the saints in Jerusalem, Ezek.
9:4. they sighed and mourned for all the abominations committed in
it. So did Lot, 2 Pet. 2:7. "He vexed his righteous soul from day to
day." So did David, Psal. 119:36. "Rivers of water run down mine
eyes, because men keep not thy law." O who that loves God can
refrain tears, to see the God of pity, the God of tender mercies, a
Father full of bowels of compassion, so incensed and provoked to
indignation! Oh, it is an heart-melting consideration where there is
any ingenuity. If our afflictions grieve God to the heart, as it doth,
Judges 10:16. our souls should be grieved for his dishonour.
4. To conclude, get upon your hearts such a sense of God's
indignation as may quicken you to the use of preventing duties. So
Amos 4:12. "Because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God, O
Israel." So the prophet, Zeph. 2:1, 2. "Gather yourselves before the
decree bring forth." It was Moses's honour to stand in the breach,
Psal. 106:23. And Abraham's to plead so with God, though he did not
prevail.
CHAPTER IV
Confirming the third proposition. viz. That God hath a special and
peculiar care of his own people in the days of his indignation.
Sect. I. PROPRIETY and relation engage care and solicitude in times
of danger; we see God hath put such a storge, and inclination into the
very creatures, that they will expose themselves to preserve their
young; and it cannot be imagined that the Fountain of pity which
dropt this tenderness into the bowels of the creatures, should not
abound with it himself; is there such strong inclination in the very
birds of the air, that they will hazard their own lives to save their
young; much more is God solicitous for his people, Isa. 31:5. As birds
flying, &c. to their nest when their young are in danger, so will the
Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. No mother is more solicitous for her
dearest child in danger and distress, than the Lord is for his people,
Isa. 40:15. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget,
yet will not I forget thee." A woman [the more affectionate sex] forget
her child, a piece of herself, her sucking child, which, together with
milk from her breast, draws love from the heart! This may rather be
supposed, than that the Lord should forget his people.
Two things must here be cleared. 1. That it is so. 2. Why it is so.
1. That it is so, will appear from,
1. Scripture emblems.
2. Scripture promises.
3. Scripture instances.
1. Scripture emblems; and among many, I will, upon this occasion,
single out two or three principal ones. In Ezek. 5:1, 2, 3. "And thou
son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and
cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard, then take thee
balances to weigh and divide the hair; thou shalt burn with fire a
third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are
fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a
knife; and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind, and I will draw
out a sword after them; thou shalt also take thereof a few in number,
and bind them in thy skirts." You find this truth shadowed out in this
excellent emblem; Jerusalem, the capital city, is the head; the
numerous inhabitants are the hair; the King of Babylon the razor; the
weighing it in balances is the exactness of God's procedure in
judgment with them; the fire, knife, and wind, are the various
judgments to which the people were appointed; the hiding of a few in
the prophet's skirt, is the care of God for the preservation of his own
remnant in the common calamity. This is one emblem clearing this
point. And then Ezek. 9:3, 4. the same truth is presented to us in
another emblem, as lively and significant as the former. "And behold,
six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth towards
the north, and every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand, and one
among them was clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side,
and they went in, and stood before the brazen altar; and the glory of
the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to
the threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed in linen,
which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; "and the Lord said unto
him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh,
and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."
The men that had the charge of the city are the angels appointed for
that service; some with slaughter-weapons, whose work it was to
destroy; but one among them had a writer's inkhorn by his side, and
he was employed to take the names and mark the persons of God's
faithful ones among them, whom the Lord intended to preserve and
hide in that common overthrow and desolation of the city, and these
were to be all marked, man by man, before the destroying angel was
to begin his bloody work. Oh! see the tender care of God over his
upright mourning servants! Once more, the same truth is
represented in a third emblem, Mal. 3:17. "And they shall be mine,
saith the Lord, in the day that I make up my jewels, and I will spare
them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him:" where the
world is compared to an house on fire; God to the master and father
of the family, the wicked to the useless lumber therein; the saints to
the children and jewels in the house; about these his first and
principal care of preservation is exercised, these he will be sure to
save, whatever become of the rest. Thus you have the chosen
emblems that illustrate this comfortable truth.
2. As these scripture-emblems illustrate it, so there are many
excellent scripture-promises to confirm it, Isa. 32:2. "A man shall be
as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest: as
rivers of water in a dry place." This man is the man Christ Jesus; the
tempests spoken of, are the miseries and calamities of war, which
make the land on which it falls, an hot, dry and weary land; in the
midst and rage whereof, Christ shall be to his faithful ones a covert
for protection, a river of water for supply, and a shadow for
refreshment; that is to say, whatsoever shall be necessary either for
their safety or comfort. Christ is not only a shadow to his people from
the wrath of God, but also from the rage of men. Again, Zech. 2:5. "I
will be a wall of fire round about:" alluding to travellers in the desert,
who, to prevent danger from wild beasts in the night, use to make a
circular fire round about the place where they lie down to rest, and
this fire was as a wall to secure them. You have the like gracious
promise also made to the poor captivated church, in Ezek. 11:16.
"Although I have cast them far off, among the Heathen, and
scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little
sanctuary in the countries where they shall come."
A little sanctuary. The* word is variously rendered and expounded;
some adverbially, and render it paulisper, a sanctuary for a little
while, viz. during their danger, at the shortness of which this adverb
points: so Junius. Others adjectively, as we translate it, templum
paucorum, as Vatablus. There was but an handful of them, and God
would be as a sanctuary to secure and protect that remnant.
3. And all these promises have in all ages been faithfully fulfilled to
the saints. You have an excellent scripture for this, 2 Pet. 2:4, 5, 6.
when the flood was brought upon the old world, there was one Noah
a righteous man in it, and for him God provided an ark. When
Sodom was overthrown, there was one Lot in it, a just man, and God
secured him out of danger; upon which that comfortable conclusion
is built, ver. 9. "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly." When
Jerusalem was destroyed, a Pella was provided as a refuge for the
godly there. Remarkable is that place to this purpose, Isa. 25:4.
"Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his
distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the
blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." And this hath
God been not only once or twice, but in all ages, Psal. 90:1. "Lord,
thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations;" or as the
Hebrew, "in generations and generations." What he hath been in
former generations to his distressed people, that he is, and will be
without alteration in all generations.
Section II. Yet we must remember, that all who are preserved in
common calamities, are not the people of God; nor are all that are
indeed his people preserved; he hath people enough to divide into
two ranks, as the husbandman his corn, some for the mill, and some
to reserve for seed. There be stars enough in the heaven to shine in
both hemispheres, and there are saints enough in the world, some to
shine in heaven, and some to preserve the church on earth.
1. All that are preserved are not the people of God. In the ark a
wicked Ham was preserved; and those that were preserved in Egypt,
many of them were afterwards destroyed for their unbelief, Jude 5.
So Ezekiel's vision, a part even of those hairs which were spared were
afterwards cast into the fire, Ezek. 5:4. Preservation from the
dominion of sin and the wrath to come, is peculiar to God's own
people; but as for temporal deliverances, we cannot infer that
conclusion.
2. Nor yet can we say that all God's people shall be preserved; that
promise, Zeph. 2:3. leaves it upon a may-be; many a precious
Christian hath fallen in the common calamity; they have been
preserved in, but not from trouble.
But it is usual with God to preserve some in the sorest judgments:
and the grounds of it are,
1. Because some must be left as a seed to propagate and preserve the
church, which is perpetual, and can never fail; he never so
overthrows nations as Sodom was overthrown, Isa. 1:9. This was the
ground of that promise, Jer. 30:11. "For I am with thee, saith the
Lord, to save thee, though I make a full end of all nations whither I
have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee." And of
that plea, Amos 7:2. "O Lord God forgive, I beseech thee; by whom
shall Jacob arise? for he is small." Except the Lord had left a small
remnant, we had been as Sodom. Remarkable to this purpose is that
scripture, Isa. 6:13. "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return,
and shall be eaten: as the teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is
in them when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof." This preserved remnant is the holy seed by which
the church is propagated and continued, Psal. 102:28.
2. Because God will, even in this world, own and reward the fears
and sorrows of his people for the sins of the times, and sufferings of
the church, with the joy and comfort of better times, and a
participation of Sion's consolation; so Isa. 66:10. Rejoice ye with
Jerusalem, ye that have mourned for her. They that have sown in
tears, do sometimes live to reap in joy, Psal. 125:6. They shall say as
Isa. 25:9. "Lo this is our God, we have waited for him, and he is come
to save us." And those that live not to reap down in this world the
harvest of their own prayers and tears, shall be no losers: a full and
better reward shall be given them in heaven, Isa. 57:21.
3. Because the preserved remnant of saints are they that must
actually give unto God the glory of all his providential
administrations in the world, both of judgments and mercies upon
others, and towards themselves: "They that go down to the pit do not
celebrate his praise; the living, the living they praise him," Isa. 38:18,
19. Thus when God turned back Zion's captivity, the remnant of the
saints that were preserved were they that recorded his praise, Psal.
126:1, 2. "Then was our mouth filled with laughter." And fully to this
sense is that scripture, Psal. 102:19, 20, 21. "He delivers those that
are appointed to death," i.e. that men had doomed to death, "that
they may declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in
Jerusalem."
4. The hiding of the saints in evil days is the greatest discovery of the
hand of God in the world; when he hides them, he shews himself,
and that both to the saints, and to their enemies.
It is one of the most glorious mysteries of providence that ever the
world beheld, viz. the strange and wonderful protection of poor
helpless Christians from the rage and fury of their mighty and
malicious enemies; though they walk visibly among them, yet they
are, as it were, hid from their hands, but not from their eyes: So Jer.
1:18. you find God made that prophet, among the envious princes,
and against an enraged and mighty king, as a defenced city, and as
an iron pillar, and as a brazen wall. And indeed it was easier for them
to conquer and take the strongest fort or garrison, than that single
person, who yet walked day by day naked among them. So Luther, a
poor monk, was made invincible; all the papal power could not touch
him, for God hid him. All the world against one Athanasius, and yet
not able to destroy him, for God hid him. This is the display of the
glorious power of God in the world, and he hath much honour by it.
Well then, if there be a God that takes care of his own in evil days; do
not you be distractingly careful what will become of you in such
times; you cannot see how it is possible for you to escape: but, 2 Pet.
2:4, 5, 6. the Lord knows how to deliver when you do not. Little did
Lot know the way and manner of his preservation till God opened it
to him; nor Noah till God contrived it for him: there was no way to be
contrived by them for escape: he that knew how to deliver them, can
deliver you also.
Leave yourselves to God's disposal, it shall certainly be to your
advantage: the church is his peculiar care; Isa. 28:3. "I the Lord do
keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it
night and day."
The more you commit yourselves to his care, the more you engage it,
Isa. 26:2. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee, because he trusteth in thee." He will certainly find a place of
safety for his people under, or in heaven.
Neither be too much dejected when the number of visible professors
seems but small; think not the church will perish when it is brought
so low. This was Elijah's case, he thought he had been left alone, that
religion had been preserved in his single person, as the phœnix of the
world; but see, 1 Kings 9:18. God hath enough left, if we we were all
in our graves, to continue religion in the world; it concerns him more
than you to look to that.
CHAPTER V
Evincing the fourth proposition, viz. That God usually premonisheth
the world, especially his own people, of his judgments before they
befal them.
Sect. I. GOD first warns, and then smites, he delights not to surprize
men; when indignation was coming, he tells his people of it in the
text, and admonisheth them to hide themselves. "Surely the Lord will
do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the prophets,"
Amos 3:7. Thus when the flood was to come upon the old world, he
gave them 120 years warning of it, Gen. 6:3. compared with 1 Pet.
3:19. So when Sodom was to be destroyed, God would not hide it
from Abraham; Gen. 18:17. "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing
that I do?" The like discovery was made unto Lot, Gen. 19:12, 13, 14.
So when the captivity was at hand, Ezekiel was commanded to give
the Jews solemn warning of it from God, Ezek. 3:17. "Hear the word
at my mouth, and give them warning from me."
And when their city and temple were to be destroyed by the Romans,
how plainly did Christ foretel them of it by his own mouth! Luke
19:43, 44. "Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall
not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not
the time of thy visitation." Josephus* also tells us, that a little before
the execution of this judgment upon them, a voice was heard in the
temple, Migremus hinc, i.e. Let us go hence; which voice Tacitus also
in his annals, mentions, Audita major humana vox, excedere Deos,
simul ingenus motus excedentium. It was more than a human voice,
telling them God was departing from them, and withal there was
heard the rushing noise, as of some that were going out of the
temple.
And as there were extraordinary premonitions of approaching
judgments, by revelation to the prophets of old, and signs from
heaven, so there are still standing and ordinary rules by which the
world may be admonished of God's judgments before they come
upon them.
And the general rule, by which men may discern the indignation of
God before it comes, is this,
When the same provocations and evils are found in one nation,
which have brought down the wrath of God upon another nation;
this is an evident sign of God's judgment at the door. For God is
unchangeably holy and just, and will not favour that in one people,
which he hath punished in another; nor bless that in one age, which
he hath cursed in another. And therefore that which hath been a sign
of judgment to one, must be so to all.
Here it is that the carcases of those sinners whose sins had cast them
away, are, as it were, cast upon the scripture shore, for a warning to
all others that they steer not the same ill course they did: 1 Cor. 10:9.
"Now these things were our examples." The Israelites are made
examples to us, plainly intimating, that if we tread the same path, we
must expect the same punishment. Let us therefore consider what
were the evils that provoked God's judgments against his ancient
people, whom he was so loth to give up, Hos. 11:8. and so long ere he
did give up, Jer. 15:9. and we shall find, by the concurrent accounts
that the prophets give,
1. That God's worship among men was generally mixed and
corrupted with their own inventions; for so it is said, Psal. 106:40,
41. "They went a whoring after their own inventions." And this so
inflamed the wrath of God, who is a jealous God, and tender over his
own honour, that he abhorred his own inheritance; yea, he expresses
himself as a man doth, whose heart is broken by the unfaithfulness of
his wife, Ezek. 6:9. Upon this account his professing people became
the generation of his wrath, Jer. 7:29, 30.
2. Incorrigible obstinacy under gentler correction, Amos 4:6, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12. Scarcity, mildews, pestilence, and sword, had been upon
them; and still those that remained, though saved as a brand out of
the fire, in which their fellow-sinners perished, would not return to
God; and this hastened on the general ruin, ver. 12. This presages the
ruin of nations indeed.
3. Stupidity and senselessness of God's hand was a sad omen, and
cause of that people's ruin; so Isa. 26:10, 11. Lord when thy hand is
lifted up, they will not see." No, nor yet when his hand is laid on, Isa.
42:24, 25. It is not some small drop of God's anger that passes
without observation, but the fury of his anger; not some light
skirmish of his judgments with them; but the strength of battle: not
in a corner upon some particular person, or family, but that which
set him on fire round about; yet all this could not awaken them. "He
hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of
battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not,
and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart." Prodigious stupidity!
to be in the midst of flames, yea, to be seized by them, and destroyed
sooner than awakened. So you find again in Hos. 7:9. "Gray hairs
were here and there upon Ephraim, yet he knew it not." Youth and
age are easily distinguished, and gray hairs do plainly distinguish
them, being the plain tokens of a declining state, yet they took no
notice of them. Such stupidity is evermore the forerunner of misery.
4. Persecution of God's faithful ministers and people, was another
forerunning sign of their ruin, 2 Chron. 36:16. "They mocked the
messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his
prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till
there was no remedy." There were also a number of upright souls
among them, that desired to worship God according to his own
prescription, but a snare was laid for them in Mizpah, and a net
spread upon Tabor; and therefore was judgment towards that
people, Hos. 5:1. Mizpah and Tabor were places in the way lying
betwixt Samaria and Jerusalem, where the true worship of God was,
and there was informers or spies set by the priest, to intercept such
as would venture to serve God at Jerusalem, according to his own
prescription; this also foreboded the judgments of God upon that
nation.
5. The decay of the life and power of godliness among them plainly
foreshewed their ruin at hand, Hos. 4:18. Their drink is sour: where,
under the metaphor of dead and sour drink, which hath lost its spirit,
and is become flat, their formal, heartless, and perfunctory duties are
severely taxed and condemned.
6. To conclude, the mutual animosities and feuds among that
professing people, evidently shewed judgment to be at the door. Hos.
9:7. "The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are
come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is
mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred." This
great, hatred was one of the greatest sins, and saddest signs upon
them. This spirit of enmity sowed by the devil among them, hastened
their calamity. If Ephraim will envy Judah, and Judah vex Ephraim,
the common enemy shall part the fray: when the whole nation was
under water, and the Roman armies under the very walls of
Jerusalem, their own historians tells us, what bitter contentions and
sharp conflicts continued among them to the very last; these things
must be looked upon by all wise and considerate men, no otherwise
than we look upon glaring meteors, and blazing comets portending
judgment and ruin at the door. We have had indeed terrible signs in
heaven, a dreadful rod of God shaken over us of late, which all men
ought to behold with trembling; yet I must say those moral signs of
judgments fore-mentioned, are much more terrible and portentous.
According therefore to the evidence of these signs among us, let all
upright hearts be affected and awakened with expectations of God's
righteous judgments. It is indeed below faith to expect evil days with
despondency and distraction; but surely it is a noble exercise of faith,
so to expect them, as to make due preparation for them.
Section 2. And if we enquire for what end God gives such warning to
the world, and premonishes them from heaven of the judgments that
are coming on the earth, know that he doth it upon a threefold
account.
1. To prevent their execution.
2. To leave the careless inexcusable.
3. To make them more tolerable and easy to his own people.
1. Warning is given with a design to prevent the execution of
judgments; this is plain from Amos 4:12. "Therefore will I do this
unto thee;" there is warning given; "and because I will do this,
prepare to meet thy God, O Israel:" there is the gracious designs of
preventing it, by bringing them seasonably upon their knees at the
foot of an angry God: you see the Lord expects it from all his
children, that they fall at his feet in deep humiliation, and fervent
intercession, whenever he goes forth in the way of judgment. What
else was the design of God in sending Jonah to Nineveh with that
dreadful message, but to excite them to repentance, and prevent
their ruin? This Jonah guessed at, and therefore declined the
message, to secure his credit, well knowing, that if they took warning
and repented, the gracious nature of God would soon melt into
compassion over them: free grace would make him appear as a liar
among the people; for to that sense his own words sound, Jonah 4:2.
"Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I
fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God." q.
d. I thought before-hand it would come to this; I knew how willing
thou art to be prevented by repentance; therefore to secure my
credit, I fled to Tarshish.
2. He forewarns of judgments to leave the incorrigible wholly
inexcusable, that those who have neither sense of sin, nor fear of
judgment before, might have no cloak for their folly, nor plea for
themselves afterward? "What wilt thou say when he shall punish
thee?" Jer. 13:21, 22. q. d. What plea or apology is left thee, after so
many fair warnings? You cannot say you were surprized before you
were admonished, or ruined before you were warned.
3. God warns of judgments before they come, to make them the more
easy to his people when they come indeed; thus in John 16:4. Christ
foretold his disciples of their approaching sufferings, that when they
come, they should not be found amazed at them, or unprovided for
them; for unexpected miseries are astonishing to the best men, and
destructive to wicked men, Luke 17:26, 27, 28.
Well then, if it be so, let all that are wise in heart consider the signs of
the times, and seasonably hearken to God's warnings. "The Lord's
voice crieth to the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name;
hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it," Mic. 6:9. It is our
wisdom to way-lay our troubles, and provide for the worst estate,
whilst we enjoy the best: happy is he that is at once believing and
praying for good days, and preparing for the worst. Noah's example
is our advantage, Heb. 11:7. "Who, by faith being warned of God, of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark." Preventing
mercies are the most ravishing mercies, Psal. 69:10. And preventing
calamities are the sorest calamities, Amos 9:10.
And let us heartily beware the supineness and carelessness of the
world in which we live, who take no notice of God's warning, but put
the evil day far from them, Amos 6:3. who will admit no fear till they
are past all hope; they see God housing his saints apace, yet will not
see the evil to come from which God takes them, Isa. 57:1, 2. "The
righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men
are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away
from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in
their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." They hear the cry of
sin which is gone up to heaven, but cry not for the abominations that
are committed, nor tremble at the judgments that they will procure.
O careless sinners, drowned in stupidity, and sleeping like Jonah
under the hatches, when others are upon their knees, and at their
wits-end! Do saints tremble, and are you secure? Have not you more
reason to be afraid than they? if judgments come, the greatest harm
it can do them is but to hasten them to heaven: but as for you, it may
hurry you away to hell: they only fear tribulation in the way; but you
will not fear damnation in the end. Believe it reader, in days of
common calamity both heaven and hell will fill apace.
CHAPTER VI
Demonstrating the fifth proposition, viz. That God's attributes,
promises, and providences, are prepared for the security of his
people, in the greatest distresses that can befal them in the world.
Sect. I. HAVING more briefly dispatched the foregoing preliminary
propositions, it remains that we now more fully open this fifth
proposition, which contains the main subject matter of this
discourse; here therefore our meditations must fix and abide, and
truly such is the deliciousness of the subject to spiritual hearts, that I
judge it wholly needless to offer any other motive besides itself to
engage your affections. Let us therefore view our chambers, and see
how well God hath provided for his children in all the distresses that
befal them in this world; it is our Father's voice that calls to us,
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers. And the
1. Chamber which comes to be opened as a refuge to distressed
believers in a stormy day, is that most secure and safe attribute of
Divine Power: into this let us first enter by serious and believing
meditation, and see how safe they are whom God hides under the
protection thereof, in the worst and most dangerous days. In opening
this attribute, we shall consider it,
1. In its own nature and properties.
2. With respect to the promises.
3. As it is actuated by providence in the behalf of distressed saints.
And then give you a comfortable prospect of their safe and happy
condition, who take up their lodgings by faith in this attribute of
God.
1. Let us consider the power of God in itself, and We shall find it
represented to us in the scriptures, in these three lovely properties,
viz.
1. Omnipotent Power.
2. Supreme Power
3. Everlasting Power
1. As an omnipotent and all-sufficient power, which hath no bounds
or limits but the pleasure and will of God, Dan. 4:34, 35. "He doth
according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him,
What dost thou?" So Psal. 135:6. "What-soever the Lord pleased that
did he, in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places."
You see Divine pleasure is the only rule according to which Divine
Power exerts itself in the world; we are not therefore to limit and
restrain it in our narrow and shallow thoughts, and to think in this,
or in that, the power of God may help or secure us; but to believe that
he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or
think. Thus those worthies, Dan. 3:17. by faith exalted the power of
God above the order and common rule of second causes. "Our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." Their faith resting
itself upon the omnipotent power of God, expected deliverance from
it in an extraordinary way; it is true, this is no standing rule for our
faith ordinarily to work by; nor have we ground to expect such
miraculous salvations, but yet when extraordinary difficulties press
us, and the common ways and means of deliverance are shut up, we
ought by faith to exalt the omnipotency of God, by ascribing the glory
thereof to him, and leave ourselves to his good pleasure, without
straitening or narrowing his Almighty Power, according to the mould
of our poor, low thoughts and apprehensions of it: for so the Lord
himself directeth our faith in difficult cases, Isa. 54:8, 9. "For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
He speaks there of his pardoning mercy, which he will not have his
people to contract and limit according to the model and platform of
their own desponding, misgiving, and unbelieving thoughts; but to
exalt and glorify it, according to its unbounded fulness; as it is in the
thoughts of God, the fountain of that mercy; so it ought to be with
respect to his power, about which his thoughts and ours do vastly
differ; the power of God as we cast in the mould of our thoughts, is as
vastly different and disproportionate from what it is in the thoughts
of God the fountain thereof, as the earth is to the heavens, which is
but a small inconsiderable point compared with them.
2. The power of God is a supreme and sovereign power, from which
all creature-power is derived, and by which it is over-ruled,
restrained, and limited at his pleasure. Nebuchadnezzar was a great
monarch, he ruled over other kings, yet he held his kingdom from
God; it was God that placed not only the crown upon his head, but
his head upon his shoulders, Dan. 2:37. "Thou, O king, art a king of
kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and
strength, and glory." Hence it follows, that no creature can move
tongue or hand against any of God's people, but by virtue of a
commission or permission from their God, albeit they think not so.
Knowest thou not, saith Pilate unto Christ, that I have power to
crucify thee, and power to release thee? Proud worm! what an
ignorant and insolent boast was this of his own power! and how doth
Christ spoil and shame it in his answer? John 19:11. Thou couldest
have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from
above.
Wicked men, like wild horses, would run over and trample under
foot all the people of God in the world, were it not that the bridle of
Divine Providence had a strong curb to restrain them: Ezek. 22:6.
"The princes of Israel every one were in thee, to their power to shed
blood." And it was well for God's Israel that their power was not as
large as their wills were; this world is a raging and boisterous sea,
which sorely tosses the passengers for heaven that sail upon it, but
this is their comfort and security: "The Lord stilleth the noise of the
sea, the noise of the waves, and the tumult of the people," Psal. 65:7.
Moral, as well as natural waves, are checked and bounded by Divine
power. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain," Psal. 76:10. As a man turns so much
water into the channel as will drive the mill, and turns away the rest
into another sluice.
Yea, not only the power of man, but the power of devils also is under
the restraint and limitation of this power, Rev. 3:10. "Satan shall cast
some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days." He
would have cast them into their graves, yea, into hell if he could, but
it must be only into a prison: He would have kept them in prison till
they had died and rotted there, but it must be only for ten days. Oh
glorious sovereign power! which thus keeps the reins of government
in its own hand!
3. The power of God is an everlasting power; time doth not weaken
or diminish it, as it doth all creature-powers, Isa. 40:28. "The Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,"
Isa. 59:1. "The Lord's hand is not shortened," i.e. He hath as much
power now as ever he had, and can do for his people as much as ever
he did; time will decay the power of the strongest creature, and make
him faint and feeble; but the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth
not. "Thou (saith the Psalmist) abideth for ever, thy years flee not,"
Psal. 102:27. In God's working there is no expence of his strength, he
is able to do as much for his church now as ever he did, to act over-
again all the glorious deliverances that ever he wrought for his
people from the beginning of the world; to do as much for his church
now, as he did at the Red-sea; and upon this ground the church
builds its plea, Isa. 51:9, 10. "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm
of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days, as in the generations of old.
Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?" q. d.
Lord, why should not thy people at this day expect as glorious
productions of thy power, as any of them found in former ages?
Sect. II. Let us view the power of God in the vast extent of its
operations, and then you will find it working beyond the line,
1. Of creature-power,
2. Of creature-expectation,
3. Of human probability.
1. Beyond the line of all created power, even upon the hearts,
thoughts, and minds of men, where no creature hath any
jurisdiction. So Gen. 31:29. God bound up the spirit of Laban, and
becalmed it towards Jacob. So Psal. 106:46. "He made them also to
be pitied of all them that carried them captives." Thus the Lord
promised Jeremiah, Jer. 15:11. "I will cause the enemy to entreat thee
well, in the time of evil." This power of God softens the hearts of the
most fierce and cruel enemies, and sweetens the spirits of the most
bitter and enraged foes of his people.
2. Beyond the line of all creature-expectations, Eph. 3:20. "God is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think."
He doth so in spirituals; as appears by those two famous parables,
Luke 15:19, 22. "And am no more worthy to be called thy son; make
me as one of thy hired servants. But the Father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his
hand, and shoes on his feet." The prodigal desired to be but as an
hired servant, and lo, the fatted calf is killed for him, and music to
his meat; and the gold ring upon his finger. And in Matth. 18:26, 27.
the debtor did but desire patience, and the creditor forgave the debt.
Oh! thinks a poor humbled sinner, if I might have but the least
glimpse of hope, how sweet would it be! But God brings him to more
than he expects, even the clear shining of assurance. It is so in
temporals, the church confesses the Lord did things they looked not
for, Isa. 64:3. And in both spirituals and temporals this power moves
in an higher orb than our thoughts, Isa. 55:8, 9. "My thoughts are not
your thoughts, nor my ways your ways; but as far as the heavens are
above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts." The earth
is but a punctum to the heavens; all its tallest cedars, mountains and
pyramids cannot reach it: He speaks, as was said before, of God's
pitying, pardoning, and merciful thoughts, and shews that no
creature can think of God, as he doth of the creature under sin, or
under misery; our thoughts are not his thoughts; either first, by way
of simple cogitation we cannot think such thoughts towards others in
misery, by way of pity; or under sin against us by way of pardon, as
God doth: Nor secondly, are our thoughts as God's in respect of
reflexive comprehension; i.e. We cannot conceive or comprehend
what those thoughts of God towards us are; when we fall into sin or
misery, just as he thinks them, they are altered, debased, and
straitened as soon as ever they come into our thoughts. See an
excellent instance in Gen. 48:11. "I had not thought to see thy face,
and lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed." A surprizing providence;
and thus the divine power works in a sphere above all the thoughts,
prayers, and expectations of men.
3. It works beyond all probabilities, and rational conjectures of men;
this Almighty power hath created deliverances for the people of God,
when things have been brought to the lowest ebb, and all the means
of salvation have been hid from their eyes. We have divers famous
instances of this in scripture, wherein we may observe a remarkable
gradation in the working of this Almighty power: It is said in 2 Kings
14:26, 27. "The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very
bitter, for there was not any shut up, or any left, nor any helper for
Israel." A deplorable state! How inevitable was their ruin to the eye
of sense? Well might it be called a bitter affliction; yet from this
immediate power arose for them a sweet and unexpected salvation:
And if we look into 2 Cor. 1:9, 10. we shall find the apostles and
choicest Christians of those times, giving up themselves as lost men;
all ways of escaping being quite out of sight, for so much those words
signify, We had the sentence of death in ourselves; i.e. We yielded
ourselves for dead men. But though they were sentenced to death,
yea, though they sentenced themselves, this power, which wrought
above all their thoughts and rational conjectures, reprieved them.
And yet one step farther, in Ezek. 37:4, 5, 6, 7. The people of God are
there represented as actually dead, yea, as in their graves, yea, as
rotted in their graves, and their very bones dry, like those that are
dead of old; so utterly improbable was their recovery: Yet by the
working of this Almighty power, which subdueth all things to itself,
their graves in Babylon were opened, the breath of life came into
them, bone came to bone, and there stood up a very great army; it
was the working of his power above the thoughts of man's heart,
which gave the ground of that famous proverb, Gen. 22:14. "In the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen." And the ground of that famous
promise, Zech. 14:7. "At evening time it shall be light;" i.e. Light shall
unexpectedly spring up, when all men according to the course and
order of nature, expect nothing but increasing darkness. How
extensive is the power of God in its glorious operations!
Sect. III. Let us view the power of God in its relation to the promises,
for so it becomes our sanctuary in the day of trouble; if the power of
God be the chamber, it is the promise of God which is that golden
key that opens it. And if we will consult the scriptures in this matter,
we shall find the Almighty power of God made over to his people by
promise, for many excellent ends and uses in the day of their trouble.
As,
1. To uphold and support them when their own strength fails, Isa.
41:10. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am
thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will
uphold thee, with the right hand of my righteousness." And which of
the saints have not sensibly felt these everlasting arms underneath
their spirits, when afflictions have pressed them above their own
strength! So runs the promise to Paul, in 2 Cor. 12:9. "My grace is
sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness;" i.e.
It is made known in thy weakness. Our weakness adds nothing to
God's power, it doth not make his power perfect, but it hath the
better advantage of its discovery, and puts forth itself more signally
and conspicuously in our weakness; as the stars which never shine so
gloriously as in the darkest night.
2. To preserve them in all their dangers, to which they lie exposed in
soul and body, 1 Pet. 1:5. "You are kept (saith the apostle by the
mighty power of God." Kept as in a garrison; this is their arm every
morning, as it is Isa. 33:2. "O Lord be gracious unto us, we have
waited for thee, be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also
in the time of trouble." The arm is that member which is fitted for the
defence of the body, and for that end so placed by the God of nature,
that it may guard every part above and below it; but as good they
were bound behind our backs, for any help they can give us in some
cases: It is God's arm that defends us and not our own. This invisible
power of God makes the saints the world's wonder. Psal. 71:7. "I am
as a wonder to many, but thou art my strong refuge." To see the poor
defenceless creatures preserved in the midst of furious enemies, that
is just matter of wonder; but God being their invisible refuge, that
solves the wonder; to this end the power of God is by promise
engaged to his people, Isa. 27:3. "I the Lord do keep it, I will water it
every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." And thus
they subsist in the midst of dangers and troubles; as the burning
bush (the emblem of the church) did amidst the devouring flames,
Exod. 3:3.
3. To deliver them out of their distresses; so runs the promise, Psal.
91:14, 15. "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I
deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known my name;
he shall call upon me, and I will answer him, I will be with him in
trouble, I will deliver him and honour him." And Jer. 30:7. "Alas for
that day is great, so that none is like it: It is even the time of Jacob's
trouble; but ye shall be saved out of it." And surely there can be no
distress so great, no case of believers so forlorn, but,
1. It is easy with God to save them out of it. Are they to the eye of
sense lost, as hopeless as men in the grave? Yet see Ezek. 37:12. "O
my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of
your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." And he doth
whatever he doth easily, with a word, Psal. 44:4. "Thou art my king,
O God, command deliverances for Jacob." And it requireth no more
violent motion to do it, than he that swimmeth in the water uses, Isa.
25:11. A gentle easy motion of the hand doth it.
2. And as the power of God can deliver them easily, so speedily. Their
deliverance is often wrought by way of surprizal. Isa. 17:14. "Behold,
at evening-tide, trouble, and in the morning he is not." So the church
prays, in Psal. 136:14. "Turn again our captivity as the streams in the
south." The southern countries are dry, the streams there come not
in a gentle and slow current, but being occasioned by violent sudden
spouts of rain, they presently overflow the country, and as soon
retire: So speedily can the power of God free his people from their
dangers and fears.
3. Yea, such is the excellency of his delivering power, that he can save
alone, without any contribution of creature-aids. So Isa. 59:16. "He
wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his hand brought
salvation unto him, and his righteousness sustained him." We read
indeed, Judg. 5:23. of helping the Lord, but that is not to express his
need, but their duty; we have continual need of God, but he hath no
need of us: he uses instruments, but not out of necessity, his arm
alone can save us, be the danger never so great, or the visible means
of deliverance never so remote.
4. Once more, let us view this chamber of Divine Power, as it is
continually opened by the hand of providence, to receive and secure
the people of God in all their dangers. It is said, 2 Chron. 16:9. "The
eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew
himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards
him." Where you have an excellent account of the immediacy,
universality, and efficacy of Divine Providence, as it uses and applies
this Divine Power for the guard and defence of that people who are
its charge; he doth not only set angels to watch for them, but his own
eyes guard them, even those seven eyes of providence mentioned,
Zech. 3:9. which never sleep nor slumber; for they are said to run
continually to and fro, and that not in this or that particular place
only, for the service of some more eminent and excellent persons;
but through the whole earth. It is an encompassing and surrounding
providence which hath its eye upon all whose hearts are upright; all
the saints are within the line of its care and protection; the eye of
providence discovereth all their dangers, and its arm defends them,
for he shews himself strong in their behalf.
The secret, but the almighty efficacy of providence is also excellently
described to us in Ezek. 1:8. where the angels are said to have their
hands under their wings, working secretly and un-discernibly, but
very effectually for the saints committed to their charge. Like unto
which is that in Hab. 3:4. where it is said of God, "that he had horns
coming out of his hands, and there was the hiding of his power." The
hand is the instrument of action, denoting God's active power, and
the horns coming out of them are the glorious rays and beams of that
power shining forth in the salvation of his people. Oh that we could
sun ourselves in those cheerful and reviving beams of Divine Power,
by considering how gloriously they have broken forth, and shone out
for the salvation of his people in all ages. So it did for Israel at the
Red-sea, Exod. 15:6. So for Jehoshaphat in that great strait, 2 Chron.
20:12, 15. And so in the time of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 19:3, 7. Yea, in all
ages from the beginning of the world the saints have been sheltered
under these wings of Divine Power, Isa. 51:9, 10. Thus providence
hath hanged and adorned this chamber of Divine Power with the
delightful histories of the church's manifold preservations by it.
Section IV. Having taken a short view of this glorious chamber of
God's power, absolutely in itself, and also in relation to his promises
and providences, it remains now, that I press and persuade all the
people of God under their fears and dangers, according to God's
gracious invitation, to enter into it, shut their doors, and to behold
with delight this glorious attribute working for them in all their
exigencies and distresses.
1. Enter into this chamber of Divine Power, all ye that fear the Lord,
and hide yourselves there in those dangerous and distressful days; let
me say to you as the prophet did to the poor distressed Jews, Zech.
9:12. "Turn ye to your strong hold, ye prisoners of hope." Strong
holds might they say; why, where are they? The walls of Jerusalem
are in the dust, the temple burnt with fire, Sion an heap; what
meanest thou in telling us of our strong holds? Why, admit all this,
yet there is satis præsidii in uno Deo; refuge enough for you in God
alone, as Calvin excellently notes upon that place. Christian, art thou
not able to fetch a good subsistence for thy soul by faith, out of the
Almighty Power of God? The renowned saints of old did so.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob met with as many difficulties and plunges
of trouble in their time, as ever you did, or shall meet with; yet, by
the exercise of their faith upon this attribute, they lived comfortably,
and why cannot you? Exod. 6:3. "I appeared (saith God) unto
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty." They
kept house and feasted by faith upon this name of mine; O that we
could do as Abraham did, Rom. 4:21. We have the same attribute,
but, alas, we have not such a faith as his was to improve it. It is easy
to believe the Almighty power of God in a calm, but not so easy to
resign ourselves to it, and securely rest upon it in a storm of
adversity; but oh what peace and rest would our faith procure us by
the free use and exercise of it this way! to assist your faith in this
difficulty wherein we find the faith of a Moses sometimes staggered,
let me briefly offer you these four following encouragements.
1. Consider how your gracious God hath engaged this his Almighty
Power, by promise and covenant for the security of his people. God
pawned it, as it were, to Abraham, in that famous promise, Gen. 17:1.
"I am the Almighty God, walk thou before me, and be thou perfect."
And Gen. 15:1. "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield." Say not, this
was Abraham's peculiar privilege, for if thou consult Hosea 12:4. and
Heb. 13:5, 6 you will find that believers in these days have as good a
title to the promises made in those days, as those worthies had to
whom they were immediately made.
2. If you be believers, your relation to God strongly engageth his
power for you, as well as his own promises, "Surely, (saith God) they
are my people, children that will not lie: so he became their Saviour,"
Isa. 63:8. We say relations have the least of entity, but the greatest
efficacy; you find it so in your own experience, let a wife, child, or
friend be in imminent danger, and it shall engage all the power you
have to succour and deliver them.
3. This glorious power of God is engaged for you by the very malice
and wickedness of your enemies, who will be apt to impute the ruin
of the saints to the defect of power in God; from whence those
excellent arguments are drawn, Numb. 14:15, 16. "Now if thou shalt
kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the
fame of thee, will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to
bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore
he hath slain them in the wilderness." And again, Deut. 32:26, 27 you
will find the Lord improving this argument for them himself; if they
do not plead it for themselves, he will. "I would scatter them into
corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from
among men, were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest
their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they
should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this." O
see how much you are beholden to the very rage of your enemies, for
your deliverances from them!
4. To conclude, the very reliance of your souls by faith upon the
power of God, your very leaning upon his arm engages it for your
protection, Isa. 26:3. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Puzzle not
yourselves therefore any longer about qualifications: but know that
the very acting of your faith on God, the recumbency of your souls
upon him, is that which will engage him for your defence, how weak
and defective soever thou art in other respects.
2. Having thus entered by faith into this chamber of Divine Power,
the next counsel the text gives you, is, to shut the door behind you;
i.e. after the acting of your faith, and the quiet repose of your souls
upon God's almighty power; then take heed lest unbelieving fears
and jealousies creep in again, and disturb the rest of your souls in
God; you find a sad instance of this in Moses, Numb. 11:21, 23. After
so many glorious acts and triumphs of his faith, how were his heels
tripped up by diffidence which crept in afterwards! Good men may
be posed with difficult providences, and made to stagger. The
Israelites had lived upon miracles many years, Psal. 78:20. "Can he
give bread also?" Good Martha objects difficulty to Christ, John
11:39. "By this time he stinketh." Oh! it is a glorious thing to give God
the glory of his Almighty Power in difficult eases that we cannot
comprehend. See Zech. 8:6. "If it be marvellous in the eyes of the
remnant of this people in these days, should it be as marvellous in
mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts." Difficulties are for men, but not
for God; because it is marvellous in your eyes, must it be so in God's!
Various objections will be apt to arise in your hearts to drive you out
of this your refuge. As,
Objections
Object. 1. Oh! but the long continuance of our troubles and distresses
will sink our very hearts, Isa. 40:27. "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is
passed over from my God."
Sol. But, oh! wait upon God without fainting, Heb. 2:3. "The vision is
yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie:
though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not
tarry."
Object. 2. Oh, but our former hopes and expectations of deliverance
are frustrated, Jer. 8:15. "We looked for peace, but no good came:
and for a time of health, and behold trouble."
Sol. Oh, but yet be not discouraged: see how the Psalmist begins the
69th Psalm with trembling, and ends it with triumph; the
husbandman waiteth, and so must you.
Object. 3. But there is no sign or appearance of our deliverance.
Sol. What then, this is no new thing, Psal. 74:9. "We see not our
signs, there is no more any prophet, neither is there any among us
that knoweth how long."
Object. 4. But all things work contrary to our hope.
Sol. Why, so did things with Abraham; yet see, Rom. 4:18. "Against
hope, he believed in hope."
3. Observe farther with delight, the outgoings and glorious workings
of Divine power for you and for the church in times of trouble: this is
sweet entertainment for your souls, it is food for faith, Psal. 74:14.
"Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be
meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness." And here I beseech
you behold and admire,
1. Its mysterious and admirable protection of the saints in all their
dangers. They feed as sheep in the midst of wolves, Luke 10:3. They
lie among them that are set on fire, Psal. 57:4. "Their habitation is in
the midst of deceit," Jer. 9:6. Yet they are kept in safety by the
mighty power of God.
2. Behold and admire it in casting the bonds of restraint upon your
enemies, that though they would, yet they cannot hurt you; our
dangers are visible, and our fears great, but our security and safety
admirable, Isa. 51:13. "Thou hast feared continually every day,
because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy;
and where is the fury of the oppressor?"
3. Behold its opening unexpected and unlikely refuges and securities
for the saints in their distresses; Isa. 16:4. "Let mine outcasts dwell
with thee, Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the
spoiler; for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the
oppressors are consumed out of the land." Rev. 12:16. "The earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth."
5. Behold it frustrating all the designs of our enemies against us, Isa.
54:17. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
condemn. Behold, I have created the smith," Isa. 54:16. q. d. He that
created the smith, can order as he pleaseth the weapon made by him;
hence our enemies are not masters of their own designs.
Oh then, depend upon this power of God, for it is your security; there
is a twofold dependence, the one natural and necessary, the other
elective.
1. Natural dependence, so all do, and must depend upon him.
2. Elective and voluntary, and so we all ought to depend upon him;
and for your encouragement take this scripture, Psal. 9:9, 10. "The
Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of
trouble, and they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for
thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." And thus of the
first attribute of God, prepared for the safety of his people in times of
trouble.
CHAPTER VII
Opening that glorious attribute of Divine Wisdom, as a second
chamber of security to the saints in difficult times.
Sect. I. THE next chamber of Divine protection into which I shall
lead you is the infinite wisdom of God; I call it the next, because I so
find it placed in scripture, Job 36:5. "He is mighty in power and
wisdom." Dan. 2:20. "Wisdom and might are his."
This attribute may be fitly called the council-chamber of heaven,
where all things are contrived in the deepest wisdom, which are
afterwards wrought in the world by power, Eph. 1:11. "He worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will." Counsel in the creature
implies weakness and defect; we are not able at one thought to
fathom the depth of a business, and therefore must deliberate and
spend many thoughts about it, and when we have spent all our
thoughts, we are oft-times at a loss, and must borrow help, and ask
counsel of others; but in God it notes the perfection of his
understanding, for as those acts of the creature which are the results
of deliberation and counsel, are the height and top of all rational
contrivement; so in its accommodation to God, it notes the excellent
results of his infinite and most perfect understanding.
Now this wisdom of God is to be considered either absolutely or
relatively.
1. Absolutely in itself, and so it is, That whereby he most perfectly
and exactly knows himself, and all things without himself, ordering
and disposing them in the most convenient manner, to the glory of
his own name.
Wisdom comprehends two things, 1. Knowledge of the nature of
things which, in the creature, is called science. 2. Knowledge how to
govern, order and dispose them, which, in the creature, is called
prudence; these things in a man are but faint shadows of that which
is in God, in the most absolute perfection; he fully knows himself, for
his understanding is infinite, Psal. 147:5. and the thoughts he thinks
towards us, Jer. 29:11. And as he perfectly understands himself, so
likewise all things that are without himself, Acts 15:18. "Known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Together
with all the secret designs, thoughts, and purposes which lie hid from
all others, in the inmost recesses of men's hearts, Psal. 139:2.
And as he perfectly knows all things, so he fully understands how to
govern and direct them to the best end, even the exalting of his own
praise, Psal. 104:24. Rom. 11:36. "For of him, and through him, and
to him are all things:" of him, as the efficient cause: through him as
the conserving cause: and to him as the final cause. And in this wise
disposition of all things, he hath a gracious respect to the good of his
chosen, Rom. 8:28. "All things shall work together for good to them
that love God." More particularly, the wisdom of God is to be
considered by us in its excellent properties, among which these four
following are eminently conspicuous, as it is the
1. Original,
2. Essential,
3. Perfect, and
4. Only wisdom.
1. The wisdom of God is the original wisdom, from which all the
wisdom found in angels or men is derived, and into that fountain we
are directed to go for supplies of wisdom, James 1:5. "If any man lack
wisdom, let him ask it of God." There is indeed a spirit in man, but it
is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding, Job
32:8. The natural faculty is ours, but the illumination thereof is
God's, the understanding of the creature is the dial, which signifies
nothing till the sun shine upon it.
4. God's wisdom is essential wisdom. Wisdom in the creature is but a
quality separable from the subject; but in God it is his nature, his
very essence, he can as soon cease to be God as to be most wise.
3. The wisdom of God is perfect wisdom, full of itself, and exclusive
of its contrary; the wisest of men are not wise at all times; the
greatest wits are not without some mixture of madness; it is an high
attainment in human wisdom to understand our own weakness and
folly; the deepest heads are but shallows, but the wisdom of God is
an unsearchable depth, Rom. 11:33. "O the depth of the riches, both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out!"
4. To conclude, the wisdom of God is the only wisdom: there is no
wisdom without him, none against him, he is the only wise God,
Jude, ver. 25.
2. The wisdom of God must be considered relatively, and that in a
double respect:
1. To his promises.
2. To his providences.
Sect. II. Let us view it in its relation to the promises, where you shall
find it made over by God to his people for divers excellent uses and
purposes in times of distress and danger. As,
1. It was made over to them in promises for their direction and
guidance when they knew not what to do, or which way to take. So
Psal. 25:9. "The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will
he teach his way:" and Isa. 58:11. "The Lord shall guide thee
continually;" and Psal. 33:8. "I will guide thee with mine eye." And
with this the Psalmist encourages himself, Psal. 73:24. "Thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel, and. afterwards receive me to glory." O
what an invaluable mercy is this! we should make shipwreck both of
our temporal and eternal mercies quickly, were it not for the
guidance of Divine wisdom.
2. To extricate them when involved in difficulties. So 2 Pet. 2:9. "The
Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." They
know not how, but their God doth; they are often at a loss, but he is
never. So 1 Cor. 10:13. "There hath no temptation taken you, but such
as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
3. To over-rule and order all their troubles to their good and real
advantage. So runs that most comprehensive promise, Rom. 8:28.
"All things shall work together for good to them that love God." In
the faith whereof Paul concludes, Phil. 1:19. Even this shall work for
his salvation. Thus the people of God were sent into captivity for
their good, Jer. 24:8. and Joseph into Egypt, Gen. 1:20. "Ye thought
evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is
this day, to save much people alive."
2. Let us view the wisdom of God in its relation to his providences,
for there it shines forth eminently, Ezek. 1:18. The wheels were full of
eyes, i.e. the motions and providential revolutions in this lower world
are very judicious and advised motions; Non cæco impetu volvuntur
rotæ; it hath an end and design which no man understands till it
open itself in the event.
The enemies of the church are oft-times men of the finest brains and
deepest policies: Herod a fox for subtlety, Luke 13:32. Julian and
Ahithophel, with many others, who have digged as deep as hell in
their counsels, and laid their designs so sure that they doubted not to
be masters of it; yet their hands could not perform their enterprize.
The wisdom of providence has still befooled them, and baffled the
cunningest head-pieces that ever undertook any design against the
church, as fast as ever they arose; and here the wisdom of providence
is remarkable in three things especially.
1. In revealing and discovering the secret conspiracies and counsels
of the church's enemies, and thereby frustrating their designs, Gen.
27:41, 42. Providence (as one calls it) is the bird of the air, that
carries tidings, and whistles deeds of darkness; Job 12:22. "He
discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the
shadow of death." And this God hath done both immediately and
mediately. 1. Immediately, 2 Kings 6:11. What counsel soever the
king of Syria took in his bed-chamber was still discovered by the
word to the prophet. So true is that, Job 34:22. "There is no darkness
nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide
themselves." Thus the design of Herod is revealed to Joseph in a
dream.
But commonly he doth it by means; as,
1. By giving knowledge of it to some that are under obligations of
duty or affection to reveal it to those that are concerned in the
danger. So Paul's sister's son, Acts 23:16 revealed the conspiracy
against his life, and so the plot miscarried by revealing it before it
was ripe for execution.
2. By the failure of some circumstance, the whole is brought to light;
there be many fine threads upon which the designs of politicians
hang; if one break, the whole design is unravelled. Thus the wisdom
of God sometimes prevents his people's ruin, by taking away the
speech of the trusty from him, and making their own tongues to fall
upon themselves.
3. By their own confession, so Psal. 64:5, 6, 7, 8. where you have the
plot laid, ver. 5. "They encourage themselves in an evil matter, they
commune of laying snares privily, they say, who shall see them?" The
deep contrivance of it, ver. 6. "They search out iniquity, they
accomplish a diligent search, both the inward thought of every one of
them, and the heart is deep." Their plot destroyed, ver. 7. "But God
shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded."
The method or way of providence in destroying it, ver. 8. "So they
shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves, all that see
them shall fly away." Thus hath the wisdom of our God wrought for
us this day, beyond all the thoughts of our hearts; and oh that it
might make such impressions upon all our hearts, as follow in ver. 9,
10. "All men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God, for they
shall wisely consider his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the
Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory."
2. The wisdom of God discovers itself in behalf of that people who
are his own, in diverting the danger from them, and putting by the
deadly thrusts their enemies make at them; thus it spoils their game
by an unforeseen rub in the green, and that especially three ways.
1. By making their counsels to jar among themselves, in which jars is
the sweetest harmony of providence; thus the counsel of Ahithophel
jars with the counsel of Hushai, 2 Sam. 17:5, 7. by which means
David escaped: The Pharisees clashed with the Sadducees, Acts 23:7.
and by that means Paul escaped.
2. By cutting out other work, and starting some new design, which
puts them, as a fresh scent does the dog, to a loss. Thus the people of
God in Jerusalem were delivered by a diversion, 2 Kings 19:7.
"Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour
and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the
sword in his own land: so Rabshakeh returned." By this means also
was David delivered from the hand of Saul, 1 Sam. 23:27. And in this
method of providence, that scripture is often fulfilled, Prov. 21:18.
"The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor
for the upright."
3. By cutting off the capital enemies of his church, by whose
seasonable destruction they are delivered. Thus fell Julian, that bitter
enemy of the Christians, when he was preparing to put his last and
most bloody design against them in execution. And thus fell Haman,
Nero, and many more in the very height and heat of their designs
against the church.
4. The wisdom of God gloriously displays itself in causing the designs
of the wicked, like a surcharged gun, to recoil upon and destroy
themselves: it often falls out with the undermining enemies of the
church, as it sometimes doth with them that dig deep mines in the
earth, who are destroyed and buried in their own works, Psal. 9:15,
16. "The Heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made, in the net
which they hid is their own feet taken. The Lord is known by the
judgments which he executeth, the wicked is snared in the work of
his own hands. Higgajon, Selah." There is a double mercy in this
providence, one in delivering the saints from the danger, the other in
causing it to fall upon the contrivers, and is therefore celebrated with
a double note of attention: in these observable strokes, the
righteousness of God shines forth in repaying his people's enemies in
their own coin*.
Thus Haman did eat the first-fruits of that tree which his own hands
planted, and thus Jerusalem becomes a burdensome stone to all that
burden themselves with it, Zech. 12:3.
4. Admire and adore the wisdom of your God in those great and
unexpected advantages, which arise to you out of those very dangers
and designs of your enemies that threatened your ruin; the hands of
your very enemies are sometimes made the instruments of your
advancement and enlargement; your persecutions become your
privileges, the motto of the palm-tree fitly becomes yours, Suppressa
resurgo.
In three things the wisdom of God makes advantage out of your
troubles.
1. In fortifying your souls and bodies with suitable strength, when
any eminent trial is intended for you; so it was with the apostles, 2
Cor. 1:5. "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation
by Christ." God lays in suitably to what men lay on mercilessly:
Christ would not draw the poor timorous disciples out of Jerusalem
unto hard encounters, until first he had endued them with power
from on high, Luke 24:49.
2. The wisdom of your God can, and often doth make your very
troubles and sufferings, instead of so many ordinances, to strengthen
your faith and fortify your patience. So the heads of Leviathan
became meat to his people inhabiting the wilderness, Psal. 74:14.
And so the plots of Balak and Balaam were designed by God to be as
a standing instructing ordinance for the encouragement of his
people's faith in future difficulties, Mic. 6:5. "O my people, remember
now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of
Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the
righteousness of the Lord." q. d. You cannot but remember how
those your enemies courted me with multitudes of offerings to
deliver you up into their hands, and how faithfully I stood by you in
all those dangers; that plot discovered at once the policy of your
enemies, and the righteousness of your God.
3. His wisdom is discovered to your advantage, in permitting your
dangers to grow to an extremity, on purpose to magnify his
goodness, and increase your comfort in your deliverance from it.
Psal. 126:1. "When the Lord turned our captivity, we were as them
that dreamed." Proportionable to the greatness of your dangers will
your joys be.
Section III. Well then, if the wisdom of God shines forth so gloriously
in the times of his people's trouble, be persuaded by faith to enter
into this chamber also; it is a chamber where a believing soul may
enjoy the sweetest rest and quietness in the most hurrying and
distracting times; shut the door behind you, and improve this
attribute to your best advantage.
1. Enter into this chamber by faith, believe firmly that the
management of all the affairs of this world, whether public or
personal, is in the hands of your all-wise God; more particularly,
exercise your faith about the wisdom of God in these things:
1. Believe that the wisdom of God can contrive and order the way of
your escape and deliverance, when all doors of hope are shut up to
sense and reason; we know not what to do, said good Jehoshaphat,
but our eyes are unto thee; q. d. Lord, though I am at a loss, and see
no way of escape, thou art never at a loss. The Lord, (saith Peter)
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation: Divine Wisdom
hath infinite methods and ways of deliverance unknown to man, till
they are opened in the event.
2. Believe that the wisdom of God can turn your greatest troubles
and fears into the choicest blessings and mercies to you: I know
(saith Paul) that this shall turn to my salvation, Phil. 1:19. meaning
his bonds and sufferings for Christ. Divine wisdom can give you
honey out of the carcase of the lion, cause you to part with those
afflictions, admiring and blessing God for them, which you met with
fear and trembling, as suspecting your destruction was imported in
them.
3. In consideration of both these, resign up yourselves to the wisdom
of God, and lean not to your own understandings: "Commit thy way
unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established," Prov. 16:3.
When Melancthon was oppressed with cares and doubts about the
distracting affairs of the church in his time, Luther thus chides him
out of his despondency, Desinat Philippus esse rector mundi, do not
thou presume to be the governor of the world, but leave the reins of
government in his hands that made it, and best knows how to rule it:
let God alone to chuse thy lot and portion, to order thy condition,
and manage all thy affairs, and let thy soul take its rest in this quiet
chamber of Divine Wisdom. But then,
2. Be sure to shut thy door behind thee, and beware, lest unbelief,
anxieties, fears, and doubts, creep in after thee to disturb thy rest,
and shake thy faith in this point; we are apt, in two cases, to be
stumbled in this matter.
1. When subtle and cunning enemies are engaged against us; this was
David's case, 2 Sam. 15:31. "One told David, saying, Ahithophel is
among the conspirators with Absalom; and David said, O Lord, I
pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." When he
heard Ahithophel was with the conspirators, it greatly puzzled him.
Though a whole conclave of politicians be against us, yet if God be
with us, let us not fear.
2. When our own reason intrudes too far, and offers its dictates too
boldly in the case, we are apt to say in the arrogancy of our own
reason, we cannot be delivered; but oh that we would learn to resign
it up to the wisdom of God. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly.
When the question was asked the prophet, Ezek. 37:3. Can these dry
bones live? he answers, Lord, thou knowest. That is excellent
counsel, Prov. 3:5. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean
not to thine own understanding."
3. Improve the wisdom of God for yourselves in all difficult and
distressful cases.
1. Beg of God to exercise his wisdom for you, when enemies conspire
against you: so did David, 2 Sam. 15:31. "Lord, turn the counsel of
Ahithophel into foolishness!" Oh it is the noblest and surest way to
vanquish an enemy: it was but asked and done.
2. Comfort yourselves with this whenever you are at a loss in your
own thoughts, and know not what to do, then commit all to Divine
conduct; let God steer for you in a storm; he loves to be trusted, Psal.
37:5. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass."
3. Encourage yourselves from this when the church is in the greatest
danger, and most sorely shaken; O that is a blessed promise, Zech.
3:9. "Upon one stone shall be seven eyes." Meaning Christ, and the
church built on him as the chief corner-stone; the seven eyes are the
seven eyes of providence, which are never all asleep.
CHAPTER VIII
Opening that glorious attribute of Divine faithfulness, as a third
chamber of security to the people of God, in times of distress and
danger.
Sect. I. HAVING viewed the saint's refuge in the power and wisdom
of God, we next proceed to a third chamber of safety for the saints
refuge, viz. The faithfulness of God.
In this attribute is our safety and rest, amidst the confusions of the
world, and daily disappointments we are vexed withal, through the
vanity and falseness of the creature; as to creatures, the very best of
them are but vanity, yea, vanity of vanity, the vainest vanity, Eccl.
1:2. "Every man in his best estate is altogether vanity," Psal. 39:5.
Yea, those that we expect most from, give us most trouble, Mic. 7:5.
Nearest relations bring up the rear of sorrows, Job 6:15. "My
brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook." Especially their deceit
appears most, when we have most need of their help, Psal 142:4.
How great a mercy is it then to have a refuge in the faithfulness of
God as David had; "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there
was no man that would know me, refuge failed me, no man cared for
my soul." And likewise the church, Mic. 7:7. "I will look unto the
Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me." A
time may come, when you shall not know where to trust in all this
world. Let me therefore open to you this chamber of rest in the
faithfulness of God against such a day, and this I shall do in a twofold
consideration of it, viz.
1. Absolutely in its own nature.
2. Relatively in the promises and providences of God.
1. Absolutely, and so the faithfulness of God is his sincerity, firmness,
and constancy in performing his word to his people in all times and
cases. So Moses describes him to Israel, Deut. 7:9. "Know therefore,
that the Lord thy God he is God, the faithful God." And Joshua
appeals to their experience for the vindication of it, Josh. 23:14. "Ye
know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath
failed of all the good which the Lord your God spake concerning you;
all are come to pass, and not one thing hath failed thereof." And it is
also fully asserted, Jer. 31:35, 36, 37. and greatly admired even in the
darkest day, Lam. 3:23. Great is thy faithfulness. And it is well for us
that his faithfulness is great, for great is that weight that leans upon
it, even all our hopes for both worlds, for this world, and for that to
come, Tit. 1:2. "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began."
It was was a very dishonourable character that* Suidas gave of
Tiberius, "That he never made shew of having what he desired to
have, nor ever minded to do what he promised to do:" but God is
faithful, and that will appear by these following evidences of it.
Evidences
Evid. 1. By his exact fulfilling of his promises of the longest date. So
Acts 7:6. four hundred and thirty years were run out before the
promise of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt was accomplished; yet,
Acts 7:17. when the time of the promise was come, God was punctual
to a day: Seventy years in Babylon, and at the expiration of that time,
they returned, 2 Chron. 36:21. Men may forget, but God cannot, Isa.
49:15, 16.
Evid. 2. By making way for his promises through the greatest
difficulties, and seeming impossibilities. So to Abraham when old,
Gen. 18:13, 14. "Is there any thing too hard for the Lord? At the
appointed time will I return unto thee, according to the time of life;
and Sarah shall have a son." And likewise to the Israelites, Can these
dry bones live? Ezek. 37:3. Difficulties are for men, not God, Gen.
18:14. What art thou, O great mountain, Zech. 8:9. "If it be
marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people, should it also be
marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts."
Evid. 3. By fulfilling promises to his people, when their hopes and
expectations have been given up. So Ezek. 37:11. Our bones are dry,
our hope is lost, we are cut off for our part. And Isa. 49:14. "Zion
said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me."
There may be much unbelief in good men, their faith may be sorely
staggered, yet God is faithful; men may question his promises, yet
God cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. 2:13.
Evid. 4. By God's appealing to his people, and referring the matter to
their own judgment, Micah 6:3, 4, 5. "O my people, what have I done
unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me, for I
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of
the house of servants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and
Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab
consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from
Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the
Lord;" q. d. If I have failed in a punctilio of my promise, shew it: Did
not Balak and Balaam court me, and try all ways to win me over to
them by multitudes of sacrifices? yet I did not desert you. So Jer.
2:31. "O generation, see ye the word of the Lord: Have I been a
wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? Wherefore say my people,
We are lords, we will come no more unto thee," Isa. 44:8.
Evid. 5. The faithfulness of God is abundantly cleared by the constant
testimonies given unto it in all ages by them that have tried it, they
have all witnessed for God, and attested his unspotted faithfulness to
the generations that were to come. So did Joshua, chap. 23:14. "All is
come to pass," and so did Daniel, chap. 9:4. "O Lord, the great and
dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love
him:" with which David's testimony concurs, Psal. 146:6. "Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord
his God, which made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
therein is, which keepeth truth for ever." Thus his people have been
witnesses in all generations, unto the faithfulness of God in his
promises; the consideration whereof leaves no doubt or objection
behind it.
Sect. II. And if we enquire into the grounds and reasons why God is,
and ever must be most faithful in performing his promises, we shall
find it is built upon stable and unshaken pillars: viz.
1. The holiness of his nature.
2. The all-sufficiency of his power.
3. The honour of his name.
4. the unchangeableness of his nature.
1. The faithfulness of God is built upon the perfect holiness of his
nature, by reason whereof it is impossible for God to lie, Tit. 1:2.
Heb. 6:11. The deceitfulness of a man flows from the corruption of
the human nature, but "God is not a man that he should lie, neither
the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numb
33:19. If there be no defect in his being, there can be none in his
working; if his nature be pure holiness, all his ways must be perfect
faithfulness.
2. It is built upon the all-sufficiency of his power; whatsoever he hath
promised to his people, he is able to perform it; men sometimes
falsify their promises through the defects of ability to perform them;
but God never out-promised himself; if he will work, none can let,
Isa. 43:13. He can do whatsoever he pleaseth to do, Psal. 135:6. The
holiness of his nature engageth, and the Almightiness of his power
enables him to be faithful.
3. The glory and honour of his name may assure us of his
faithfulness, in making good the promises, and all that good which is
in the promises, to a tittle; for wherever you find a promise of God,
you also find the name and honour of God given as a security for the
performance of it; and so his name hath ever been pleaded with him
by his people, as a mighty argument to work for them, Josh. 7:9.
What wilt thou do for thy great name, q. d. Lord, thine honour is a
thousand times more than our lives, it is no such great matter what
becomes of us; but ah, Lord, it is of infinite concernment that the
glory of thy name be secured, and thy faithfulness kept pure and
unspotted in the world. So again, Exod. 32:11, 12. "And Moses
besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax
hot against thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of
Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should
the Egyptians speak, and say, for mischief did he bring them out to
slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of
the earth? turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against
thy people." q. d. It will be sad enough for the hands of the Egyptians
to fall upon thy people, but infinitely worse for the tongues of the
Egyptians to fall upon thy name.
4. The unchangeableness of his nature gives us the fullest assurance
of his faithfulness in the promises, Mal. 3:6. "I am the Lord, I change
not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." God's
unchangeableness is his people's indemnity, and best security in the
midst of dangers; as there is not yea and nay with God, neither
should it be so with our faith; that which gives steadiness to the
promises should give steadiness also to our expectations for the
performance of them: and so much, briefly, of the faithfulness of
God, absolutely considered in the nature and grounds of it.
2. Next let us view the faithfulness of God, as it relates to the many
great and precious promises made unto his people for their security,
both in their
1. Temporal Concernments.
2. Spiritual Concernments
1. We find the faithfulness of God pledged for the security of his
people, in their spiritual and eternal concernments against all their
dangers and fears, threatening them on that account, and that more
especially in these three respects.
1. It is given them as their great and best security for the pardon of
their sins, 1 John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Our
greatest danger comes from sin; guilt is a fountain of tears, a
pardoned soul only can look other troubles in the face boldly: as guilt
begets fear, so pardon produces courage, and God's faithfulness in
the covenant is, as it were, that pardon-office from whence we fetch
our discharges and acquittances, Isa. 43:25. "I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy trangressions for mine own sake." The promises of
remission are made for Christ's sake, and when made, they must be
fulfulled for his own, that is, his faithfulness sake.
2. It is engaged for the perseverance of the saints, and their
continuance in the ways of God in the most hazardous and difficult
times; this was the encouragement given them. 1 Cor. 1:8, 9. "Who
shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ; God is faithful by whom ye were called
unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." Ah Lord!
might those Corinthians say, the powers of the world are against us,
suffering and death are before us, a treacherous and fearful heart
within us. Ay, but yet fear not, Christ shall confirm you whosoever
opposes you; though the world and your own hearts be deceitful, yet
comfort yourselves with this, your God is faithful.
3. The faithfulness of God is given by promise for his people's
security in, and encouragement against all their sufferings and
afflictions in this world, 2 Thess. 3:2, 3. "That we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith; but
the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil."
He prays they may be delivered from absurd, treacherous, and
unfaithful men, who would trepan and betray them to ruin; but this
is proposed as their relief, that when the treachery of men shall bring
them into troubles, the faithfulness of God shall support them under,
and deliver them out of those troubles; they shall have spiritual
supports from God under their deepest sufferings from men, 1 Pet.
4:19.
2. God's faithfulness is engaged for his people's indemnity and
security, amidst the temporal and outward evils whereunto they are
liable in this world; and that, either to preserve them from troubles,
Psal. 91:1, 2, 3, 4. or to open a seasonable door of deliverance out of
trouble, 1 Cor. 10:13. In both, or either of which, the hearts of
Christians may be at rest in this troublesome world; for what need
those troubles fright us, which either shall never touch us, or if they
do, shall never hurt, much less ruin us?
Sect. III. Having taken a short view of God's faithfulness in the
promises, it will be a lovely sight to take one view of it more, as it is
actuated, and exerted in his providences over his people. Believe it,
Christians, the faithfulness of God runs through all his works of
providence, whenever he goes forth to work in the world.
"Faithfulness is the girdle of his loins," Isa. 11:5. It is an allusion to
workmen who going forth in the morning to their labour, gird their
loins or reins with a girdle; now there is no work wrought by God in
this world, but his faithfulness is as the girdle of his loins: The
consideration whereof should make the most despondent believer,
Gird up the loins of his mind, that is, encourage and strengthen his
drooping and discouraged heart. Those works of God which are
wrought in faithfulness, and in pursuit of his eternal purposes and
gracious promises, should rather delight than affright us, in
beholding them. It pluckt out the sting of David's affliction, when he
considered it was in very faithfulness that God had afflicted him,
Psal. 119:89, 90. But more particularly, let us behold with delight the
faithfulness of God, making good six sorts of promises to his people,
in the days of their affliction and trouble, viz.
1. The promises of preservation.
2. The promises of support.
3. The promises of direction.
4. The promises of provision.
5. The promises of deliverance.
6. The promises of ordering and directing the event to their
advantage.
1. There are promises in the word for your preservation from ruin,
and what you read in those promises, you daily see the same fulfilled
in your own experiences. You have a promise in Psal. 57:3. "He shall
send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would
swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and truth." Say
now, have you not found it so? When hell hath sent forth its
temptations to defile you, the world its persecutions to destroy you,
your own heart its unbelieving fears to distract and sink you, hath
not your God sent forth all his mercy and his truth to save you? Hath
not his truth been your shield and buckler? Psal. 91:4. May you not
say with the church, it is of his mercy you are not consumed, his
mercies are new every morning, and great is his faithfulness, Lam.
3:23.
2. As you have seen it actually fulfilling the promises for your
preservation, so you may see it making good all the promises in his
word for your support in troubles. That is a sweet promise, Psal.
91:15. "I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him." You have also
a very supporting promise in Isa. 41:10. "Fear not thou, for I am with
thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I
will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness." Oh! how evidently hath the faithfulness of God shone
forth in the performance of his word to you in this respect? you are
his witnesses, you would have sunk in the deep waters of trouble if it
had not been so. So speaks David, Psal. 73:26. "My heart and my
flesh faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for
ever." Have you not found it so with you as it is in 2 Cor. 12:10.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in rehproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I
am weak, then I am strong." God's strength hath been made perfect
in your weakness, by this you have been carried through all your
troubles: hitherto hath he helped you.
3. As you have seen it faithfully fulfilling the promises for your
preservation and support; so you have seen it in the direction of your
ways. So runs that promise, Psal. 32:8. "I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way that thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."
Certain it is "that the way of man is not in himself," Jer. 10:23. O how
faithfully hath your God guided you, and stood by you in all the
difficult cases of your life! Is not that promise, Heb. 13:5. faithfully
fulfilled to a tittle, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee?" Surely
you can set your seal to that in John 17:17. "Thy word is truth;" had
you been left to your own counsels you had certainly perished; as it is
said of them in Psal. 81:12. "I gave them up unto their own hearts
lusts: and they walked in their own counsels."
4. As there are promises in the word for your preservation, support,
and direction; so in the fourth place, there are promises for your
provision, as in Psal. 34:9 the Lord hath promised that they that fear
him shall not want. When they are driven to extremity, he will
provide, Isa. 41:17. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there
is none, when their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear
them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." And is not this
faithfully performed? "He hath given meat unto them that fear him;
he will ever be mindful of his covenant," Psal. 111:5. In all the
exigencies of your lives you have found him faithful to this day; you
are his witnesses that his providences never failed you, his care hath
been renewed every morning for you; how great is his faithfulness!
5. You also find in the word some reviving promises for your
deliverances. You have a very sweet promise in Psal. 91:14. "Because
he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him:" and again,
Psal. 50:15. "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee:"
you have done so, and he hath made a way to escape. Our lives are so
many monuments of mercy; we have lived among lions, yet
preserved, Psal. 57:4. The burning bush was an emblem of the
church miraculously preserved.
6. There are promises in the world for the ordering and directing all
the occurrences of providence to your great advantage; so it is
promised, Rom. 8:28. "That all things shall work together for good to
them that love God." Fear not, Christians, however you find it now;
whilst you are tossing to and fro upon the unstable waves of this
world; you shall find, to be sure, when you come to heaven, that all
the troubles of your lives were guided as steadily by this promise as
ever any ship at sea was directed to its port, by the compass or north-
star.
And now what remains but that I press you as before,
1. To enter into this chamber of Divine faithfulness.
2. To shut the door after you.
3. And then to live comfortably on it in evil days.
1. Enter into this chamber of God's faithfulness by faith, and hide
yourselves there. Every man is a lie, but God is true, eternally and
unchangeably faithful. Oh! exercise your faith upon it, be at rest in it.
Now there are two great and weighty arguments to press you to enter
into this chamber of Divine faithfulness.
Arguments
Arg. 1. Is fetched from the nature of God, who cannot lie, Tit. 1:2. "He
is not a man, that he should lie." Numb. 23:19. "Neither the son of
man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or
hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Remember upon
what everlasting, steady grounds the faithfulness of God is built.
These are immutable things, Heb. 6:18. "This Abraham built upon,
Rom. 4:21 being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was
able also to perform." He accounted him faithful that promised.
What would you expect or require in the person that you are to trust?
You would,
1. Expect a clear promise; and lo! you have a thousand all the
scripture over, fitted to all the cases of your souls and bodies, Thus
you may plead with God, as David, Psal. 119:49. "Remember the
word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope." So
Jacob pleaded, Gen. 32:12 "Thou saidst I will surely do thee good."
These are God's bonds and obligations.
2. You would expext sufficient power to make good what he
promiseth. This is in God as a fair foundation of faith, Is. 26:4. "Trust
ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength:" Because of thy strength we will wait upon thee: creatures
cannot, but God can do what he will.
3. You would expect infinite goodness and mercy inclining him to
help and save you. Why, so it is here, Psal. 130:7. "Let Israel hope in
the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous
redemption." So Moses, Exod. 33:18. "I beseech thee shew me thy
glory." The request was, a view of God's glory: The answer is, my
goodness shall pass before thee; which hints to us, that though all
God's attributes be glorious, yet that which he most glories in, is his
goodness. And then,
4. You would expect that none of his promises were ever blotted or
stained by his unfaithfulness at any time; and so it is here, Josh
23:14. Not one thing hath failed: all are come to pass, all ages have
sealed this conclusion, Thy word is truth, thy word is truth.
Arg. 2. Besides all this, you have the encouragement of all former
experiences, both of others and of your own, as a second argument to
press you to enter into this chamber of safety, the faithfulness of
God.
1. You have the experiences of others. Saints have reckoned the
experiences of others that lived a thousand years before them, as
excellent arguments to quicken their faith: So Hos. 12:4. he had
power over the angel, and prevailed; he found him in Bethel, and
there he spake with us. Remember there was a Joseph with us in
prison, a Jeremiah in the dungeon, a Daniel in the den, a Peter in
chains, an Hezekiah upon the brink of the grave; and they all found
the help of God most faithfully protecting them, and saving them in
all their troubles. Suitable to this is that in Psal. 22:4, 5. "Our fathers
trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou deliveredst them; they cried
unto thee, and were delivered; they trusted in thee, and were not
confounded."
2. Your own experiences may encourage your faith: So David's did, 1
Sam. 17:37. "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of
this Philistine." So did Paul's experience encourage his faith, in 2
Cor. 1:10. "Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver;
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." Thus enter into the
faithfulness of God by faith.
3. Let me beg you to be sure to shut the doors after you, against all
unbelieving doubts, jealousies, and suspicions of the faithfulness of
God; the best men may find temptations of that nature; so did good
Asaph, though an eminent saint, Psal. 77, 78. "Will the "Lord cast off
for ever: and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone
for ever? doth his promise fail for ever-more?" These jealousies are
apt to creep in upon the minds of men, especially when,
1. God delays to answer our prayers as soon as we expect the return
of them; we are all in haste for a speedy answer, forgetting that
seasons of prayer are our seed-times; and when we have sown that
precious seed, we must wait for the harvest as the husbandman doth.
Even a precious Heman may find a faint qualm of unbelief and
despondency seizing him by the long suspension of God's answers,
Psal. 88:9, 10, 11.
2. It will be hard to shut the door upon unbelief, when all things in
the eye of our sense and reason seem to work against the promise; it
will require an Abraham's faith at such a time to glorify God by
believing in hope against hope, Rom. 4:18. If ever thou hopest to
enjoy the sweet repose and rest of a Christian in evil times, thou
must resolve, whatever thine eyes do see, or thy senses report, to
hold fast this as a most sure conclusion; God is faithful and his word
is sure; and that although "clouds and darkness be round about him,
yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne,"
Psal. 97:2.
Oh! that you would once learn firmly to depend on God's
faithfulness, and fetch your daily reliefs and supports thence,
whensoever you are oppressed and assaulted, either,
1. By spiritual troubles. When you walk in darkness and have no
light, then you are to live by acts of trust and recumbency upon the
most faithful one, Isa. 50:10. Or,
2. By temporal distresses; so did the people of God of old, Heb. 3:17,
18. He lived by faith on this attribute, when all visible comforts and
supplies were out of sight.
But especially, let me warn and caution you against five principal
enemies to your repose upon the faithfulness of God, viz.
1. Distracting cares, which divide the mind, and eat out the peace and
comfort of the heart, and which is worst of all, they reflect very
dishonourably upon God who hath pledged his faithfulness and truth
for our security; against which, I pray you bar the door by those two
scriptures, Phil. 4:6. "Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known unto God." And that in 1 Pet. 5:7. "Casting all your care
upon him, for he careth for you."
2. Bar the door against unchristian despondency, another enemy to
the sweet repose of your souls in this comfortable and quiet chamber
of Divine faithfulness: you will find this unbecoming and
uncomfortable distemper of mind insinuating and creeping in upon
you, except you believe and reason it out, as David did, Psal. 42:11.
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him."
3. Bar the door of your heart against carnal policies and sinful shifts,
which war against your own faith, and God's faithfulness, as much as
any other enemy whatsoever. This was the fault of good David in a
day of trouble, 1 Sam. 27:1. "And David said in his heart, I shall now
perish one day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me
than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines."
Alas, poor David! nothing better than this? Time was when thou
couldst think on a better way, when thou couldst say, at what time I
am afraid I will trust in thee. How dost thou forget thyself in this
strait! doth thy old refuge in God fail thee now? can the Philistines
secure thee better than the promises? wilt thou fly from thy best
friend to thy worst enemies? but what need we wonder at David, who
find the same distemper almost unavoidable to ourselves in like
cases.
4. Shut the door against discontents at, and murmurings against the
dispositions of providence, whatever you feel or fear: I persuade you
not to a stoical apathy, and senselessness of the evils of the times;
that would preclude the exercise of patience. If the martyrs had all
had the dead palsy before they came to the fire, their faith and
patience had not triumphed so gloriously as they did; but on the
contrary, beware of grudgings against the ways and will of God, than
which, nothing militates more against your faith, and the peace and
quietness of your hearts.
5. To conclude, shut the door against all suspicions and jealousies of
the firmness and stability of the promises, when you find all sensible
comforts shaking and trembling under your feet; have a care of such
dangerous questions as that, Psal. 77:8. Doth his promise fail? These
are the things which undermine the foundation both of your faith
and comfort.
6. In a word, having sheltered your souls in this chamber of rest, and
thus shut the doors behind you, all that you have to do is to take your
rest in God, and enjoy the pleasure of a soul resigned into the hands
of a faithful Creator, by opposing the faithfulness of God to all the
fickleness and unfaithfulness you will daily find in men, Micah 7:6, 7.
yea, to the weakness and fading of your own natural strength and
ability; Psal. 73:26. "My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the
strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." And so much of the
third chamber prepared for believers in the name of their God.
CHAPTER IX
Opening to believers the unchangeableness of God, as a fourth
chamber of refuge and rest in times of trouble
Sect. I. IT is said, Prov 9:1. Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath
hewn out her seven pillars, i.e. She hath raised her whole building
upon solid and stable foundations; for, indeed, the strength of every
building is according to the ground-work upon which it is erected.
Debile fundamentum fallit opus. The wisdom and love of God have
built an house for a refuge and sanctuary to believers in tempestuous
and evil times, containing many pleasant and comfortable chambers
prepared for their lodgings, till the calamities be over-past; three of
them have been already opened, viz. the power, wisdom, and
faithfulness of God.
The last of which leads into a fourth, much like unto it, namely, the
unchangeableness of God; wherein his people may find as much rest
and comfort amidst the vicissitudes of this unstable world, as in any
of the former. This world is compared, Rev. 15:2 to a sea of glass
mingled with fire. A sea for its turbulency and instability; a sea of
glass for the brittleness and frailty of every thing in it; and a sea of
glass mingled with fire, to represent the sharp sufferings and fiery
trials with which the saints are exercised here below. The only
support and comfort we have against the fickleness and instability of
the creature, is the unchangeableness of God.
There is a twofold changeableness in the creature;
1. Natural, the effect of sin.
2. Sinful in its own nature.
1. Natural, let in by the fall upon all the creation, by reason whereof
the sweetest creature is but a fading flower, Psal. 102:26. Time, like a
moth, frets out the best wrought garment with which we clothe and
deck ourselves in this world, temporalia rapit tempus. Our most
pleasant enjoyments, wives, children, estates, like the gourd in which
Jonas so delighted himself, may wither in a night; sin rings these
changes all the world over.
2. Sinful, from the falseness, inconstancy, and deceitfulness of the
creature: Solomon puts a hard question which may pose the whole
world to answer it, Prov. 20:6. A faithful man who can find? The
meaning is, a man of perfect and universal faithfulness is a phœnix,
seldom or never to be found in this world; for when a question in
scripture is moved and let fall again without any answer, then the
sense is negative; but though the believer despair of finding an
unchangeable man, it is his happiness and comfort to find an
unchangeable God.
The unchangeableness of God will appear three ways.
1. By scripture emblems.
2. By scripture assertions.
3. By convincing arguments.
1. By scripture emblems. Remarkable to this purpose is that place,
Jam. 1:17. where God is called "the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning;" no variableness. The word
is, παραλλαγη, an astronomical term commonly applied to the
heavenly bodies, which have their parallaxes, i.e. their declinations,
revolutions, vicissitudes, eclipses, increases and decreases: but God
is a Sun that never rises nor sets, but is everlastingly and
unchangeably one and the same; with him is no variableness nor
shadow of turning, τροπης αποσκιασμα. The sun in its zenith casts
no shadow, it is the tropic or turning of its course that causes the
shadow; the very substance of turning is with man; but not the least
shadow of turning with God. And in Deut. 32:4. Moses tells us, God
is a rock, and his work is perfect. And indeed perfect working
necessarily follows a perfect being. Now there is nothing found in
nature more solid, fixed, and immutable than a rock; the firmest
buildings will decay; a few ages will make them a ruinous heap; but
though one age pass away, and another come, the rocks abide where,
and what they were; Our God is the rock of ages; and yet one step
higher, in Zech. 6:1. his decrees and purposes are called mountains
of brass, that is, most firm, durable, and unchangeable purposes.
Thus the immutability of God is shadowed forth to us in scripture
emblems.
2. The same also you will find in plain, positive scripture assertions:
such as these that follow, Mal. 3:6. "I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." And Job 23:13. "He is
in one mind, and who can turn him?" Men are in one mind to-day,
and another to-morrow; the winds are not more variable than the
minds of men; but God is in one mind, the purposes of his heart
never change. Thou art the same, or as some translate, Thou art
thyself for ever, Psal. 102:27. Thus when Moses desired to know his
name, that he might tell Pharaoh from whom he came; the answer is,
I AM hath sent me, Exod. 3:14. not I was, or I will be, but I AM THAT
I AM, noting the absolute unchangeableness of his nature.
3. The unchangeableness of God is fully proved by convincing
arguments which Divines commonly draw from such topics as these,
viz.
1. The perfection of his goodness.
2. The purity of his nature.
3. The glory of his name.
Arguments
Arg. 1. From the perfection of his goodness and blessedness; God is
optimus maximus, the best and chiefest good, and in that sense,
"There is none good but one, which is God," Mark 10:18. From
whence it is thus argued, If there be any change in God, that change
must either be for the better, or for the worse, or into a state equal
with that he possessed before.
But not for the better, for then he could not be the chief good; nor for
the worse, for then he must cease to be God, the perfection of whose
nature is perfectly exclusive of all defects; nor into an equal state of
goodness with that he possessed before; that notion would involve
Polytheism, and suppose two first and equal beings; besides the
vanity of such a change would be absolutely repugnant to the wisdom
of God.
Therefore with the Father of lights can be no variableness nor
shadow of turning.
Arg. 2. The unchangeableness of God may be evinced from the
purity, sincerity, and uncompoundedness of his being, in which there
neither is, nor can be the least mixture, he being a pure act. From
whence it is thus argued;
If there be any change in God, that change must be made either by
something without himself, or by something within himself, or by
both together.
But it cannot be by any thing without himself; for in him all created
dependent beings live and move, and enjoy the beings they have; and
all the changes that are among them, are from the pleasure of this
unchangeable Being, he changeth them, but it is not possible for him,
upon whose pleasure they so entirely and absolutely depend, both as
to their beings and workings, to suffer any changes himself from, or
by them.
Nor can any such change be made upon God by any thing within
himself: for that would suppose action and passion, movens et
motum, a mixture and composition in his nature, which is absolutely
rejected and excluded by the simplicity and purity thereof; seeing
therefore it can neither be from any power without him, nor any
mixture within him, there can be no change at all made on him.
Arg. 3. That is by no means to be ascribed to God, which at once
eclipses the glory of his name, and overthrows the hopes and
comforts of all his people.
But so would the supposition of mutability in God do, this would
level him with the vain changeable creature; whereas it is a principal
part of his glory, that "He is not a man that he should lie, neither the
son of man that he should repent," Numb 23:19. This also would
overthrow the hopes and comforts of all his people, which are built
upon this attribute as upon their stable and solid foundation: Among
divers others we find three principal privileges of the people of God,
built upon his immutability, viz.
1. Their perseverance in grace.
2. Their comfort in the promises.
3. Their hopes of eternal life.
1. Their perseverance in grace is built upon the foundation of God's
unchangeableness; one main reason why Christians never repent of
their choice of Christ, and the ways of godliness, is, because the gifts
and callings of God are without repentance, Rom. 11:29. Should God
but once repent of the gifts of his grace he hath bestowed on us, and
alter in his love towards us, how soon would our love to God, and
delight in God vanish, as the image in the glass doth, when the man
that looked upon it hath once turned away his face?
2. All their comfort in the promises is built upon God's
unchangeableness. The promises are the springs of consolation;
should they fail and dry up, the whole world could not afford them
one drop of spiritual comfort to refresh their thirsty souls; the
strength of our consolation immediately results from the stability
and firmness of the scripture promises, Heb. 6:18.
3. Their hope of eternal life depends upon the unchangeableness of
God that hath promised, Tit. 1:2. "In hope of eternal life, which God
that cannot lie promised before the world began." Take away the
immutability of God, and you at once darken and eclipse his glory,
and overturn the perseverance, consolations, and hopes of all his
people; but blessed be God, these things are built upon firm
foundations.
1. His nature is unchangeable, "Thou art the same for ever." Psal.
102:27. The heavens, though they be the purest, and therefore the
most durable and unchangeable part of the creation, yet they shall
perish and wax old, and be changed as a vesture; but our God is the
same for ever.
2. His power is unchangeable; Isa. 59:1. "The Lord's hand is not
shortened." Time will enfeeble the strongest creature, and cut short
the power of the hands of the mighty, they cannot do in their
decrepit age as they were wont to do in their youthful and vigorous
age; but the Lord's hand never is, nor can be shortened.
3. The counsels and purposes of his heart are unchangeable, Psal.
33:11. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his
heart to all generations."
4. The goodness, truth, and mercy of God are unchangeable, Psal.
100:5. "The Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth
endureth to all generations."
5. The word of God is unchangeable. Though all flesh be as grass, and
the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field, yet the word of our
God shall stand for ever; all the promises contained therein are sure
and stedfast: Not yea and nay, but yea and Amen for ever, 2 Cor 1:20.
6. The love of God is an unchangeable love, Jer. 31:3. "Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love."
7. In a word, all the gracious pardons of God are unchangeable; as
they are full without exceptions, so they are final pardons without
any revocation. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their
iniquities and sins will I remember no more," Heb. 8:12. And thus
much briefly of God's unchangeableness absolutely considered in
itself.
Sect. II. Let us next consider, and briefly view the unchangeableness
of God in its respect and relation,
1. To his promises,
2. To his providences.
1. The immutability of God gives down its comforts to believers
through the promises, there is no other way by which they can have a
comfortable admission into this chamber or attribute of God; and
there are six sorts of promises in the word, by which it is highly
improveable to their support and comfort in an evil day. For,
1. The unchangeable God hath engaged himself by promise to be with
his people at all times and in all straits, Heb. 13:5. "I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee." The life, joy, and comfort of a believer lies in
the bosom of that promise, the conclusion of faith from thence is
sweet and sure: If I shall never be forsaken of my God, let hell and
earth do their worst, I can never be miserable.
2. The unchangeable God hath promised to maintain their graces,
and thereby his interest in them for ever, Jer. 32:40. "And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away
from them to do them good: But I will put my "fear in their hearts,
that they shall not turn away from me." Where the Lord undertakes
for both parts in the covenant, his own and theirs: I will not turn
away from them; Oh inexpressible mercy! Yea, but Lord, may the
poor believer say, that is not so much my fear, as that my treacherous
heart will turn away from thee. No, saith God, I will take care for that
also: I will put my fear into thy heart, and thou shalt never depart
from me.
3. The unchangeable God hath promised to establish the covenant
with them for ever; so that those who are once taken into that
gracious covenant shall never be turned out of it again, Isa. 54:10.
"The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
4. The unchangeable God hath secured his loving kindness to his
people, by promise, under all the trials and smarting rods of
affliction with which he chastens them in this world; he hath
reserved to himself the liberty of afflicting them, but bound himself
by promise never to remove his favour from them, Psal. 89:33, 34. "I
will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes, nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not take from them,
nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."
5. The promises of a joyful resurrection from the dead are grounded
upon the immutability of God, Matt. 22:32. "I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: God is not the God
of the dead, but the God of the "living." Death hath made a great
change upon them, but none upon their God; though they be not, he
is still the same: therefore they are not lost in death, but shall
assuredly be found again in the resurrection.
6. To conclude, the promises of the saints' eternal happiness with
God in heaven are founded on his immutability, 1 Cor. 1:8, 9. Tit. 1:2.
By all which you see what a pleasant lodging is prepared for the
saints in the unchangeable promises of God, amidst all the changes
and alterations here below.
2. Once more let us view the unchangeableness of God in his
providence towards his people, whatever changes it makes upon us,
or whatever changes we seem to discern in it, nothing is more certain
than this, that it holds one and the same tenor, pursues one and the
same design, in all that it doth upon us, or about us. Providences
indeed are very variable, but the designs and ends of God in them all,
are invariable, and the same for ever. It is noted in Ezek. 1:12. "That
the wheels went straight forward; whither the spirit was to go, they
went; and they turned not when they went." As it is in nature, so in
providence, you have one day fair, halcyon, and bright, another dark
and full of storms; one season hot, another cold; but all these serve to
one and the same end and design to make the earth fruitful; and the
end of all providences is to make you holy and happy. That is a sweet
promise, Rom. 8:28. "All things shall work together for good to them
that love God." This is the compass by which all providences steer
their course, as a ship at sea doth by the chart: but more particularly
let us note the unchangeableness of God in his providences of all
kinds, effective and permissive, and see in them all his unchangeable
righteousness and goodness.
1. It must needs be so, considering the unchangeableness of his
decree, 2 Tim. 2:19. "The foundation of God standeth sure."
Providences serve, but never frustrate; execute, but cannot make
void the decree; so that you may say of the most afflicting
providences, as David doth of the stormy winds, Psal. 148:8. They all
fulfil his word.
2. The wisdom of God proves it; he will not suffer his works or
permissions to clash with his designs and purposes: Divine wisdom
shews itself in the steady direction of all things to their ultimate end.
To open this in some particulars, consider,
1. Doth the Lord permit wicked men to rage and insult, persecute and
vex his people? Yet all this while providence is in its right way, it
walks in as direct a line to your good, as when it is in a more pleasant
path of peace, Jer. 24:5. "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, like
these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away
captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of
the Chaldeans for their good." Israel was sent to Babylon for their
good. This improves your faith and patience, Rev. 13:10. Here is the
patience and faith of the saints. So Rom. 5:2, 3. "By whom also we
have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in
hope of the glory of God; and not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience." By this you are
weaned from, and mortified to this world.
2. Doth the Lord in his providence order many and frequent, close
and smarting afflictions for you? Why, lo! here is the same design
managing as effectually, as if all the peace and prosperity in the
world were ordered for you; the face of providence indeed is not the
same, but the love of God is still the same; he loves you as much
when he smites, as when he smiles on you: for what are his ends in
afflicting you, and what the sanctified fruits of your afflictions? Is it
not,
1. To purge your iniquities? Isa. 27:9. "By this therefore shall the
iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his
sin."
2. To reduce your hearts to God? Psal. 119:67. "Before I was afflicted
I went astray, but now have I kept thy word."
3. To quicken you to your duties? Let the best man be without
afflictions, and he will quickly grow dull in the way of his duty.
3. Doth God let loose the chain of Satan to tempt and buffet you! Yet
is he still the same God to you as before; for do but observe his ends
in that permission, and you will find, that, by these things, the Lord
is leading you towards that desired assurance of his love which your
souls long after. Few Christians attain to any considerable settlement
of soul, but by such shakings and combats, the end of these
permissions is to put you to your knees, and blow up a greater flame
and fervour of spirit in prayer, 2 Cor. 12:8. So that, eventually, these
permissions of providence prove singular advantages and blessings
to you.
Sect III. What remains then, seeing God is unchangeable in his love
to his people, pursuing the great ends of all his gracious promises in
a steady course of providence, wherein he will never effect, or permit
any thing that is really repugnant to his own glory, or their good; but
that we enter also into this chamber of rest, shut the doors about us,
and comfortably improve the unchangeableness of God, while we see
nothing but changes and troubles here below.
(1.) Enter into God's unchangeableness by faith, take up your lodging
in this sweet attribute also; and to encourage your faith thereunto,
seriously consider a few particulars.
1. Consider how constant, firm, and unchangeable God hath been to
his people in all times and straits; not one among the many
thousands of his people, that are passed on before you, but by
frequent and certain experience have found him so. What a singular
encouragement is this to our faith in the case before us? Psal. 9:13.
"They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord,
hast not forsaken them that seek thee." So Isa. 25:4. "Thou hast been
a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the
terrible ones is as the storm against the wall." Neither is there any
thing in your experience contradictory to the encouraging reports
others have made of God: you must acknowledge, that
notwithstanding your own changeableness, who have hardly been
able to maintain your hearts in any spiritual frame towards God for
one day together, yet his mercies towards you have been new every
morning, and great hath been his faithfulness. You have often turned
aside from the way of your duty, and have not followed God in a
steady course of obedience; and yet, for all that, his goodness and
mercy have followed you all the days of your life, as it is Psal. 23:6.
2. Consider how often you have doubted and mistrusted the
unchangeableness of God, and been forced with shame and sorrow,
to retract your folly therein; God hath many times convinced you,
that his love to you is an unchangeable love, how many changes
soever, in the course of his providence, have passed over you; consult
Isa. 49:14. and Psal. 77, 78 and see how the cases are parallel, both in
respect of God's constancy to them and you, and the inconstancy of
his people's faith then, and yours now; your fears and doubts are the
same with theirs, though his goodness and love have been as
unchangeable to you as ever they were to them.
3. Consider the advocateship and intercession of Jesus Christ in
heaven for you, by virtue whereof the favour and love of God become
unalterable towards his people. If any thing can be supposed to cool
or quench the love of God towards you, nothing in the world is more
like to do it than your sin; and this, indeed, is that which you fear will
estrange and alienate the heart of your God from you. But, reader, if
thou be one that sincerely mournest for all the grief and dishonour of
God by thy sin, appliest the blood of sprinkling to thy soul by faith,
and makest mortification and watchfulness thy daily business;
comfort thyself against that fear from that singular encouragement
given thee in this case, 1 John 2:1, 2. "My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not; and if any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
Propitiation for our sins." Look as the death of Christ healed the
great breach betwixt God and the soul, by thy reconciliation at first;
so the powerful intercession of Christ in heaven effectually prevents
all new breaches betwixt God and thy soul afterwards, so that he will
never totally and finally cast thee off again.
(2.) Shut the door behind you against all objections, scruples, and
questionings of God's immutability, and, by a resolved and steady
faith, maintain the honour of God in this point, by thy constant
adherence to it, and dependence upon it: and especially see that you
give him the glory of his unchangeableness.
1. When thou shalt see the greatest alterations and changes made by
his providence in the world. What though thou shouldst live to see all
things turned upside down, the foundations out of course, all things
drawing into a sea of confusion and trouble? yet in the midst of those
public distractions and distress of nations, encourage thou thyself in
this: Thy God, and his love to his people, are the same for ever. Psal.
46:1, 2, 3, 4, 5. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble; therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved, and
the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea: God is in the midst of
her, she shall not be moved."
2. Live by faith upon God's unchangeableness under the greatest
changes of your own condition in this world. Providence may make
great alterations upon all your outward comforts: it may cast you
down, how dear soever you be to God, from riches into poverty, from
health into sickness, from honour into reproach, from liberty into
bondage; thou mayest overlive all thy comfortable relations, and of a
Naomi become a Marah. Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down,
said as good a man as you, Psal. 103:10. Yet still it is your duty, and
will be your great privilege in the midst of all these changes, to act
your faith upon the never-changing God, as that holy man did, Hab.
3:17. "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither fruit be in the
vine; the labour of the olive shall fail; and the fields shall yield no
meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stall; yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of
my salvation;" q. d. Suppose a thousand disappointments of my
earthly hopes, yet will I maintain my hope in God. O Christian! with
how many yets, notwithstandings, and neverthelesses, must thy faith
bear up in times of trouble, or thou wilt sink.
3. See thou live upon God's unchangeableness, when age and
sickness shall inform thee that thy great change is at hand; though
thy heart and thy flesh fail, comfort thyself with this, thy God will
never fail thee, Psal. 73:16. "O God (saith David) thou hast taught me
from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works,
now also when I am old and gray-headed, forsake me not," Psal.
71:17, 18.
4. Live upon the unchangeableness of God under the greatest and
saddest changes of your spiritual condition; God may cloud the light
of his countenance over thy soul, he may fill thee with fears and
troubles, and the Comforter that should relieve thee may seem to be
far off; yet still maintain thy faith in the unchangeableness of his
love; trust in the name of the Lord, stay thyself upon thy God, when
thou walkest in darkness, and hast no light, Isa. 50:10 Thus shut thy
door.
(3.) Improve the unchangeableness of God to thy best advantage in
the worst times, by drawing thence such comfortable conclusions as
these.
1. If God be an unchangeable God in his promises, and in his love to
his people, what should hinder but the people of God may live
happily and comfortably in the saddest times, and greatest troubles
upon earth. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making
many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all things," 2 Cor. 6:10.
"Certainly nothing ought to quench a Christian's mirth, that is not
able to separate him from the love of Christ," Rom. 8:35.
2. If God be an unchangeable God in his love to his people, then it
becomes all that have special interest in this God, to be unchangeable
and immoveable in the ways of their obedience towards him: God
will not cast you off, see that you cast not off your duties, no, not
when they are surrounded with difficulties; he loves you, though you
often grieve him by sin; see that you still love him, though he often
grieve and burden you by affliction: he will own you for his people
under the greatest contempts and reproaches of the world; see that
you own and honour his ways and truths when you are under most
reproach from a vile world.
CHAPTER X
Opening the care of God for his people in times of trouble, as the fifth
chamber of rest to believers.
Sect. I. CARE, in the general notion of it, as it is applied to the
creature, imports the studiousness and solicitousness of our
thoughts, for the safety and welfare of ourselves, or those we love and
highly value. Now, though there be no such thing properly in God, at
whose dispose and pleasure all events are, and to whose counsels and
appointments all difficulties must give way; yet he is pleased to
accommodate himself to our weakness, and express his regard and
love to his people, by such things as one creature doth to another, to
which it is endeared by relation or affection. To this purpose we may
find many significant synonymous expressions in scripture, all
importing the care of God over his people, in a pleasant variety of
notion and expression, as Nah. 1:7. "The Lord is good, a strong hold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him."
He knoweth them, i.e. he hath a special, tender, and careful eye upon
them, to see their wants supplied, and to protect them in all their
dangers; for in the common and general sense he knoweth them that
trust not in him, as well as those that do; and farther to clear this
sense of the place, it is said, Psal. 40:17. "The Lord thinketh on
them." Importing not only simple cogitation, but the immoration or
abiding of his thoughts upon them, as our thoughts are wont to do
upon that which we highly esteem, especially when any danger is
near it. And yet farther, to clear this sense, it is said, Job 36:7. "He
withdraweth not his eye from the righteous." As when Moses was
exposed in the ark of bulrushes, where his life was in imminent
hazard by the waters of Nilus on one side, and the Egyptian cut-
throats on the other: his sister Miriam kept watch at a distance, to
see what would be done to him. Her eye was never off that ark
wherein her dear brother lay; fear and care engaged her eye to keep a
true watch for him. Thus the Lord withdraweth not his eye from the
righteous. To the same purpose is that expression, Deut. 33:3. "Yea,
he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand." That which we
dearly love and prize above ordinary, we keep in our own hands for
its security, as not thinking it safe enough in any other hand or place.
And once more, Isa. 49:16. God is said to engrave them upon the
palms of his hands, alluding to what is customary among men, who,
when they would charge their memories with something of special
concernment, use to change a ring, or bind a thread about the finger,
to put them in mind of it. Thus is the care of our God expressed to us
in scripture-notions. The amount of all which is given to us in that
one proper and full expression of the apostle, 1 Pet. 1:7. He careth for
you. To open this chamber of Divine care as a place of sweetest rest
to our anxious and perplexed minds, in times of difficulty and
hazard, it will be necessary that you seriously ponder,
1. The grounds and reasons of the care of God.
2. The extent and compass of the care of God.
3. The lovely properties of the care of God.
(1.) The grounds and reasons of God's care for his people, which are,
1. The strict and dear relations in which he is pleased to own them.
Believers are his children, and you know how naturally children
engage and draw forth the father's care for them. This is the
argument Christ uses, Mat. 6:31, 32. "Therefore, take no thought,
saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all those things." Children, especially when young, disquiet
not themselves about provision for back or belly, but leave that to the
care of their parents, from whom, by the tye and bonds of nature and
love, they expect provision for all those wants: Every one takes care
for his own; much more doth God for his own children; and, indeed,
he expects his children should live upon his care as our children in
their minority do upon ours.
2. God's precious estimation and value of them engage his constant
care for them. Believers are his jewels, Mal. 3:17 his peculiar people,
1 Pet. 2:6 his special portion or treasure in this world, Deut. 32:9 and
as such he prizes and esteems them above all the people of the earth,
and accordingly exercised his special care in all the dangers they are
exposed to. Special love engageth peculiar care.
3. The dangers and fears of the people of God in this world are many
and great; and were it not for the Lord's assiduous and tender care
over them, they must necessarily be ruined both in soul and body by
them. The church is God's vineyard, its enemies as so many wild
boars to root it up: Upon this account he saith, Isa. 27:3. "I the Lord
do keep it; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." And, indeed,
it is well for Israel that he who keepeth it, never slumbereth nor
sleepeth, Psal. 121:4. That our houses are in peace, that we and our
dear relations fall not as a prey into cruel and bloody hands skilful to
destroy, that we find any rest and comfort in so evil and dangerous a
world, is wholly and only to be ascribed to the care of God over us
and ours.
4. Jesus Christ hath solemnly recommended all the people of God to
his particular care. It was one of the last expressions of Christ's love
to them at the parting hour, John 17:11. "And now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world; and I come to thee: Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me." q. d. While I have been personally present with them, I took the
same care of them as a shepherd doth of his flock, or a tender father
of his children: but now I must leave them in the world, and in the
midst of a world of dangers, fears, and troubles, against which they
can make no provision or defence themselves. Father, remember
them, look after them when I shall be removed from them, they are
thine as well as mine; and I recommend them, with my last breath, to
thy care and protection. This is a special ground also, of God's care
for them.
5. Believers daily cast themselves upon the care of God, and resign
themselves unto it in their daily prayers, and by their often-renewed
acts of faith, than which no act is found more engaging from the
creature upon its God; though there be nothing of merit, yet there is
much engaging efficacy in it, Isa. 26:3. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee." We
find it so among ourselves, the more firmly and entirely any one
trusteth in us, and dependeth upon us, the more he engageth us to
protect and relieve him. Now this is the daily work of Christians to
trust God over all, and put all their concernments into his hand,
which very trust and dependence draw forth the care of God for
them.
6. In a word, the many promises God hath made to his people to
preserve, support, and supply them in all the times of need, engage
the care of God for them, as often as such wants or dangers befal
them; for indeed, herein he at once takes care for their necessity, and
for his own honour and glory. They trust to his word, and rely upon
his promises, which therefore he will be careful to make good. This
was the argument which the church pleaded in the time of imminent
danger to engage the care of God for them, Psal. 74:20. Have respect
unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the
habitations of cruelty, q. d. O Lord, thy people are in the midst of
cruel enemies, take care for their protection, and though there be no
worth in them to which thou shouldest have respect, yet have respect
unto thine own covenant: let the glory of thy name draw forth thy
care to thy people.
Sect. II. We have seen the grounds and reasons of God's care over his
people, let us next view (2.) The extent and compass of this divine
care; and here methinks the Lord saith to his people as he said to
Abraham, Gen. 13:14, 15. Lift up now thine eyes from the place where
thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward, for
all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for
ever. So here, poor timorous, dejected believer, lift up thine eyes
from the place where thou art, and take a view of all the promises in
the scriptures of truth; promises of supports under all burthens,
supplies of all wants, deliverances out of all dangers, assistances in
all distresses; to thee have I given them, all as a portion for ever. This
care of God walks around, and encompasseth the souls and bodies of
them that fear him day and night. There is no interest or concern of
either found without the line of his all-surrounding care, and every
one of his children are enfolded in his fatherly arms, Deut. 33:3. All
his saints are in thy hand. All, and every one of their wants and
straits are observed by this care, in order to their supply, Phil. 4:19.
My God shall supply all your need.
1. Great is the care of God over the bodies of his people, and all the
dangers and necessities of them as they daily grow; your meat and
drink are daily provided for you by your Father's care, Psal. 111:2–4.
He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will be ever mindful
of his covenant. It is from this care of thy heavenly Father, that
necessary provisions have been made for thee, of which, it may be,
thou hast had no foresight: this is the God that hath fed thee all thy
life long, Gen. 48:15. It is from the same care thy body hath been
clothed, Matth. 6:28. How much more shall he clothe you, O ye of
little faith? It is through this care you sleep in peace, and your rest is
made sweet unto you, Prov. 3:24 'When thou liest down, thou shalt
not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.'
In a word, thou owest all thy recoveries from dangerous diseases,
and narrow escapes from the grave, to this care of thy God over thee,
He is the Lord that healeth thee, Exod. 15:26. That the incensed
humours of thy body had not overflowed their banks, like an
inundation of the sea, when they raged in thy dangerous diseases, is
only because thy God took the care of thee, and set them their
bounds.
2. Divine care extends itself to the souls of all that fear God, and to all
the concernments of their souls; and manifestly discovers itself in all
the gracious provisions it hath made for them. More particularly, it is
from this tender, fatherly care that,
1. A Saviour was provided to redeem them, when they were ruined
and lost by sin, John 3:16 Rom. 8:32.
2. That spiritual cordials are provided to refresh them in all their
sinking sorrows and inward distresses, Psal. 94:19.
3. That a door of deliverance is opened to them, when they are sorely
pressed upon by temptations, and ready to be overwhelmed, 1 Cor.
10:13.
4. That a strength above their own comes seasonably to support
them, when they are almost over-weighed with inward troubles;
when great weights are upon them, the everlasting arms are
underneath them, Psal. 138:3. Isa. 57:16.
5. That their ruin is prevented, when they are upon the dangerous
and slippery brink of temptations, and their feet almost gone, Psal.
73:2. Hos. 2:6. 2 Cor. 12:7.
6. That they are recovered again after dangerous falls by sin, and not
left a prey and trophy to their enemy, Hos. 14:4.
7. That they are guided and directed in the light way, when they are
at a loss, and know not what course to take, Psal. 16:11. 73:24.
8. That they are established and confirmed in Christ, in the most
shaking and overturning times of trouble and persecution; so that
neither their hearts turn back, nor their steps decline from his ways,
Jer. 32:40. John 4:14.
9. That they are upheld under spiritual desertions, and recovered
again out of that dismal darkness, into the cheerful light of God's
countenance, Isa. 57:16.
10. That they are at last brought safe to heaven, through the
innumerable hazards and dangers all along their way thither, Heb.
11:19. In all these things the care of their God eminently discovers
itself for their souls.
(3.) Once more let us consider the care of God for his people in the
lovely properties thereof. As,
1. It is a fatherly care, than which none is greater or more tender,
Matth. 7:8. "Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these
things." And indeed the greatest and tenderest care of an earthly
father is but a faint shadow of that tender care which is in the heart
of God over his children; for to that end we find them compared,
Matth. 7:11. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven,
give good things to them which ask him." The care of parents is
carelessness itself, compared with that care which God takes of his.
2. The care of God is an universal care, watching over all his people,
in all ages, places, and dangers, 2 Chron. 16:9. "The eyes of the Lord
run to and fro through the whole earth, to shew himself strong in
behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him." This was applied
by way of reproof to Asa, who out of a sinful distrust of the care of
God, relied upon the help of Syria, as if there had not been a God in
heaven to take care of him and the people.
3. God's care over his, is assiduous and continual; "his mercies are
new every morning, great is his faithfulness," Lam. 3:22, 23. "He
keeps his people night and day," Isa. 27:3. Could Satan, or his
instruments find such an hour, wherein the seven eyes of providence
should be all asleep, that would be the fatal hour to our souls and
bodies; but he that keepeth Israel slumbereth not.
4. God's care over his, is exceeding tender, far beyond the tenderness
that the most affectionate mother ever felt in her heart towards the
child that hanged on her breast, Isa. 49:15. "Can a mother forget her
sucking child, &c. they may, yet will not I forget thee." The birds of
the air are not so tender of their young in the nest, as God is of his
people in the world, Isa. 31:5. Mercy fills the heart of God, yea,
tender mercy, yea, multitudes of tender mercies, Psal. 51:1.
5. The care of God is a seasonable care, which is always sure to take
the opportunity and proper season of relieving his people; in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen; the beauty of providence is much
seen in this thing, wherever you feel a want, this care finds a supply;
and thus much briefly of the care of God absolutely considered in
itself.
Sect. III. It remains that we also consider the care of God in its
twofold respect, viz.
1. To his promises.
2. To his providences.
(1.) There are multitudes of promises found in the scriptures, exactly
fitted as so many keys to open the door of this comfortable chamber,
to receive and secure all that fear God, whatever their wants, fears, or
distresses are. These are reducible into two classes, or ranks, viz.
1. More general and comprehensive.
2. More particular promises.
The general and more comprehensive promises are found in the
general expression of the covenant, as that to Abraham, Gen. 17:1. "I
am God Almighty, walk thou before me, and be perfect." q. d. Let it
be thy care to walk exactly in the paths of obedience before me, and I
will take care to supply all thy wants from the never-failing fountain
of my all-sufficiency; and of the same tenor is that, 2 Cor. 6:18. "I will
be to them a Father, and they shall be my sons and daughters," i.e.
Expect your provisions and protections from my care, as children do
from their father. More particularly, there are six sorts of promises
wherein the care of God is particularly made over to his people in the
greatest hazards and difficulties in this life, viz.
1. It is assigned and made over to them to supply all their needs, so
far as the glory of God, and the advancement of their spiritual and
eternal good shall require it, Psal. 34:9. "They that fear "the Lord
shall not want any good thing." All your livelihood is in that promise;
thence comes your daily bread; your own and your family's meat is
contained therein.
2. It is made over to the church and people of God for their defence
against all dangers, Isa. 54:17. "No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper." This promise wards off all the deadly blows, and
puts by all the mortal thrusts that are made at you; here the care of
God forms itself into a shield for your defence.
3. The care of God is engaged by promise for the moderation and
mitigation of your afflictions, that they may not exceed your abilities
to bear them, Isa. 27:8, 9. "In measure when it shooteth forth, thou
wilt debate with it; he stayed the rough wind in the day of the east
wind." If the wind blow from a cold corner, this promise moderates
it, that it blow not a storm; all the sparing mercies and sweetening
circumstances, which gracious souls thankfully note, in the sharpest
trials, come from this promise, wherein the care of God is engaged
for that purpose.
4. Divine care is put under the bond of a promise, for the direction
and guidance of all their troubles and trials to an happy issue, Rom.
8:28. "All things shall work together for good." From what quarter
soever the wind bloweth, God will take care that it shall be useful to
drive you to your port; the very providences that cast you down, by
virtue of this promise, prove as serviceable and beneficial as those
that lift you up.
5. The care of God stands engaged in the promise, for the help and
aid of his people in all the extremities and exigencies of their lives,
Psal. 46:1. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble." Never is the care of God more visible and conspicuous, than
in such times of need.
6. Lastly, The care of God is engaged to carry his people safe through
all the dangers of the way, and bring them all home to glory at last,
John 10:28. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." This care
of God, thus engaged for you, is your convoy to accompany and
secure you, till it set you safe into your harbour of eternal rest.
(2.) You have heard how the care of God is engaged for you by
promise; now see how it actuates and exerts itself for the people of
God in the various methods of providence; and here, O here is the
sweetest pleasure of the Christian life, a delight far transcending all
the delights of this life. Sit down Christian in this chamber also, and
make but such observations upon the care of thy God as follow; and
then tell me whether the world, with all its pleasures and delights,
can give thee such another entertainment.
1. Reflect upon the constant, sweet, and suitable provisions, that
from time to time have been prepared for thee and thine, by this care
of thy God; for whensoever thy wants did come, I am sure from
hence came thy supplies, it hath enabled thee to return the same
answer the disciples did to that question, Luke 22:35. "Lacked ye any
thing?" And they said, Nothing.
2. Reflect with admiration upon the various difficulties of your lives,
wherein your thoughts have been entangled, and out of which you
have been extricated and delivered by the care of God over you; how
oft have your thoughts been like a ravelled skaine of silk, so
entangled and perplexed with the difficulties and fears before you,
that you could find no end, but the longer you thought, the more you
were puzzled, till you have left thinking and fell to praying; and there
you have found the right end to wind up all your thoughts upon the
bottom of peace and sweet contentment, according to that direction,
Psal. 37:5. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he
shall bring it to pass."
3. Observe with a melting heart, how the care of thy God hath
disposed and directed thy way to unforeseen advantages: Had he not
ordered thy steps when, and as he did, thou hadst not been in
possession of those temporal and spiritual mercies that sweeten thy
life at this day. Surely the steps of good men are ordered by the Lord:
and as for thee, Christian, what reason hast thou, with an heart
overflowing with love and thankfulness, to look up and say, My
Father, thou art the guide of my youth? It is sweet to live by faith
upon Divine care. O what a serene life might we live, careful for
nothing, but making known our requests unto God in every thing,
Phil. 4:6. casting all our care on him that careth for us, 1 Pet. 5:7.
perplexing our thoughts about nothing, but rolling every burden
upon God by faith. Thus lived holy Musculus, when reduced to
extreme poverty, and danger at the same time; then it was that he
solaced his soul with that comfortable distich, a good lesson for
others;
Est Deus in cælis, qui providus omnia curat.
Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest.
That is, There is a God above, who, as he provides for, and takes care
of all, can never forsake those that believe in him.
The provident care of his heavenly Father made his heart as quiet as
the child at the breast. Christian, thou knowest not what distressful
days are coming upon the earth, nor what personal trials shall befal
thee in this world; but I advise thee, as thou valuest the tranquillity
and comfort of thy life, shut up thyself by faith in this chamber of
Divine care; it is thy best security in this world: Reflect frequently
and thankfully upon the manifold supports, supplies, and salvations
thou hast already had from this fountain of mercies, and be not
discouraged at new difficulties. When an eminent Christian was told
of some that way-laid him to destroy him, his answer was, Si Deus
mei curam non habet, quid vivo? In like manner thou mayest say, if
God had not taken care for thee; how couldst thou have lived till
now? how couldst thou have over-lived so many troubles, fears, and
dangers as thou hast done?
CHAPTER XI
Opening the sixth and last chamber, viz. The love of God, as a
resting-place to believing souls in evil times.
Sect. I. THOUGH all the attributes in the name or chambers of this
house of God are glorious and excellent, yet this of love is
transcendently glorious: Of this room it may be said as it was of
Solomon's royal chariot, Cant. 3:10. "The midst thereof is paved with
love." In this attribute the glory of God is signally and eminently
manifested, 1 John 4:9, 10. And upon this foundation the hopes and
comforts of all believers are built and founded, Rom. 8:35. "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
He defies and despises them all, because neither of them alone, nor
altogether by their united strength, can unclasp the arms of Divine
love, in which belivers are safely enfolded. In this attribute God's
people, by faith, entrench themselves, and of it a believer saith, Hic
murus aheneus esto, this shall be my stronghold and fortress in the
day of trouble. And well may we so esteem and reckon it, if we
consider,
1. That wherever the special love of God goes, there the special
presence of God goes also, John 14:23. "He shall be loved of my
Father, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
And O how secure and safe must those be (however times govern)
with whom God himself maketh his abode? For as the Psalmist
speaks, Psal. 91:1. "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most
High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." And he that is
over-shadowed by an Almighty power, need not fear how many
mighty enemies combine against him.
2. Wherever the special love of God is placed, that person becomes
precious and highly valuable in the eyes of God; he appreciates and
estimates such a man as his peculiar treasure, which naturally and
necessarily draws and spreads the wing of Divine care over him for
his protection, Deut. 23:12. "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in
safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day long." Things
of greatest value are always kept in safest custody.
3. Upon whomsoever the special love of God is set, there all events
and issues of troubles are sure to be over-ruled to the eternal
advantage of that soul, Rom. 8:28. Which consideration alone is
sufficient to unsting all the troubles in the world, and make the
beloved of the Lord shout and triumph in the midst of tribulations.
But let us enter yet farther into this glorious chamber of Divine love,
and more particularly view the admirable properties thereof; though,
when all is done, it will be found a love passing knowledge; our
thoughts may admire, but can never measure it.
1. And first, you will find it an ancient love whose spring is in eternity
itself. Believer, God is thine ancient friend, who foresaw and loved
thee before thou wast, yea, before this world was in being; the fruits
and effects thereof thou gatherest in time, but the root that produces
them was before all time, Prov. 8:22, 23. "The Lord possessed me in
the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." Thus was the
love of God contriving, and providing the best of mercies in Christ for
us; while, as yet, there were no such creatures in the world, nor a
world prepared to receive us.
2. The love of God to his people is a free, and altogether undeserved
love. It must needs be so, seeing it preceded our very being; which
had it not done, yet no motives had been found in us to allure it to us
more than others, Deut. 7:7. "The Lord did not set his love upon you,
nor chuse you, because ye were more in number than any people (for
ye were the fewest of all people) but because the Lord loved you." So
that we cannot find one stone of our merit in the foundation of this
love; for those whom it embraces in its arms are immerentes & male
merentes, ill-deserving, as well as undeserving. We were loved of
God before we were lovely in ourselves; it was freely pitched upon us,
not purchased by us, Isa. 43:24.
3. The love, of God to believers is a bountiful love, streaming forth
continually mercies both innumerable and invaluable to their souls
and bodies, 2 Pet. 1:3. Christian, it would quickly weary thine arm,
yea, let me say, the arm of an angel, but to write down the
thousandth part of the mercies which have already flowed out of this
precious fountain to thee; though all thou hast received or shalt
receive in this world, are but the beginnings of mercy, and. first-
fruits of the love of God to thee: it is the love of God which daily loads
thee with benefits, as the expression is, Psal. 68:19. And if thou art
daily loaded with mercies, what an heap of mercies will the mercies
of thy whole life be?
4. The love of God to believers is a distinguishing love; not the
portion of all, no, nor yet of many besides thee, 1 Cor. 1:26. The
generality of the world dwell in the room of common providence, not
in the chamber of special love, into which God hath admitted thee:
this consideration should make thee break out in admiration, as it is,
John 19:22. "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to me,
and not to the world?"
5. The love of God to believers is a love transcendent to all creature-
love; it moves in an higher sphere than the love of any creature doth,
Rom. 5:6, 7, 8. We read of Jacob's love to Rachel, which is so
celebrated in the sacred story for the fervour of it; and yet all that it
enabled him to suffer was but the summer's heat and the winter's
cold; a trifle to what the love of Christ engaged, and enabled him to
suffer for thy sake. We read also of the love of David to Absalom,
which made him wish, Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom,
my son, my son! This love was only manifested in a wish, which,
haply might have been retracted too, had there been an exchange to
be made indeed: but the life of Christ, worth millions of his life, was
actually and willingly staked down for thy soul. We read of the love of
one disciple manifested to another disciple in a cup of cold water; but
Christ hath manifested his love to thee in pouring out his warmest
heart-blood for thy redemption. O what a transcendent love is the
Divine love!
6. To conclude, (though alas, little is said of the love of God) it is an
everlasting and unchangeable love. Hills and mountains shall sooner
start from their basis, than his loving-kindness depart from his
people, Isa. 54:10. Though he afflict us, still he loves us, Psal. 89:32,
33. Nay, though we grieve him, yet still he loves us, Mark 16:7. Tell
the disciples, and tell Peter. Peter had grieved Christ, denied Christ,
yet will he not renounce nor cast off Peter.
Sect. II. Well then, if God hath opened to your souls such a chamber
of love, where your souls may be ravished with daily delights, as well
as secured from danger and ruin; O that you would enter into it by
faith, and dwell for ever in the love of God! I mean, clear up your
interest in it, and then solace your souls in the delights of it. Need I
to use an argument, or spend one motive to press you to enter into
such an heaven upon earth? If the deadness of thy heart doth need it,
take into consideration, reader, these few that follow.
Motives
Motive 1. Ponder with thyself how sad and miserable the case will be
with thee in the days of calamity and distress, if the love of God shall
be clouded to thy soul. In those days such as love thee, will either be
absent from thee, or impotent to help thee; all thy friends and
familiars may be removed far off, and whither then wilt thou turn,
should God be far off too? This was that evil which Jeremiah so
vehemently deprecated, chap. 17. ver. 17. Be not a terror unto me,
thou art my hope in the day of evil; q. d. O Lord, my soul depends
upon refreshment and comfort from thee, when all the springs of
earthly comfort are dried up. Shouldst thou be a terror to me in the
day of evil, it will be the most terrible disappointment that ever befel
my soul; if thou be kind, I care not who be cruel; if I have the love of
God, I value not the hatred of men; but if God be a terror, who, or
what can be a comforter? The love of God is the alone refuge to
which the gracious soul retreats, upon all creature disappointments
and failings. This, therefore, is the main thing to be feared against
the evil day.
Motive 2. The knowledge and assurance of the love of God is a mercy
attainable by a gracious soul, notwithstanding the imperfections of
grace. Peter had his falls and failings as well as other Christians, yet
when Christ puts the question home to him, John 21:15. "Simon, son
of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" he was able to return a
clear positive answer, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."
Study thy heart, Christian, and study the scriptures; if thou canst
find the sincere love of God in thy heart, that scripture will clear the
love of God to thy soul, John 4:19. "We love him, because he first
loved us." If thou lay thine hand upon a stone-wall, and feel it warm,
thou mayest conclude the sun-beams have shone upon it; for warmth
is not naturally in dead stones. Our love to God is but a reflex beam
of his love to us; and we know there can be no reflex without a direct
beam. Thousands of Christians do, at this day, actually possess the
ravishing sense of Divine love, whose fears and complaints have been
the same that thine now are; that God who indulged this favour to
them, can do as much for thee.
Motive 3. Think how well thou wilt be provided for the worst and
difficultest times, when the love of God shall be well secured to thy
soul; when the love of God, i.e. the sense of his love, is once shed
abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which for that end, among
others, is given unto us; we shall then be able to glory in tribulation,
Rom. 5:3, 5. We may then bid defiance to all the adverse powers of
hell and earth, and say, now do your worst; we are out of your reach,
and above all your terrors and affrights. Be advised then to sit close
to this work; clear but this point once, and the worst is past. Oh lie at
the feet of God night and day, give him no rest, take no denial from
him, fill thy mouth with pleas and arguments: Tell him, Lord, it is
neither for corn, nor wine, that I seek thee, but only for thy love;
bestow any other gifts upon whom thou wilt, only seal up thy love to
my soul.
And, Lastly, I advise thee, reader, to be exceeding careful, when God
admits thee into the sense of his love, to shut the door behind thee,
lest thy soul be soon expelled thence by the subtilty of Satan, who
envies nothing more, than such an happiness as this: That envious
spirit totally despairs of the least drop of such a mercy, and therefore
swells with envy at thy enjoyment of it. But if ever thou fasten thy
hand of faith upon this mercy, loose not thy hold by every objection
with which he will rap thy fingers.
1. If he object the many sharp afflictions, and manifold rods of God
upon thee, call not the love of God in question for that; but
remember what he saith, Heb. 12:6. "Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Fatherly
corrections are so far from being inconsistent with the love of God,
that his love is rather questionable without them, than for them; they
are love tokens, not marks of hatred.
2. Yield not up thy claim and title to the love of God, because he
sometimes hides his face from thee; thou knowest the sun is up, and
going on in its regular course, in the darkest and closest day. My
God, my God, saith Christ himself, Why hast thou forsaken me?
Believe he is still thy God, and his love is immutable, when the sense
and manifestations thereof do fail.
3. Call not the love of God in question, because of thy great vileness
and unworthiness. Say not, when thou most loathest thyself, God
must needs loath thee too; he can love where thou loathest. "Return,
return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee:
What will ye see in the Shulamite? as it were the company of two
armies" The spouse was exceeding beautiful in the eyes of others,
when most base and vile in her own: What would you see in the
Shulamite? Alas, there is nothing in me, at the best, but conflicts and
wars betwixt grace and corruption, as it were betwixt two armies,
Cant. 6:13.
3. Quit not thy claim to the love of God, because he seems to shut out
thy prayers, and delays to answer thy long continued desires and
importunities of thy soul in some cases. David would neither censure
his God, no, nor call in question his interest in him, because of such a
delay and silence, Psal. 22:1, 2. My God my God, The claim is
doubled, ver. 1. and yet in the next breath he saith, "I cry in the day
time but thou hearest not; and in the night-season, and am not
silent."
Thus I have offered you some advice and assistance, how to secure
yourselves in these Divine attributes, viz. the power, wisdom,
faithfulness, unchangeableness, care, and love of God, as in so many
sanctuaries, and comfortable refuges in the days of common
calamity. It is noted, even of the Egyptians, when the storm of hail
was coming upon the land, Exod. 9:20. "He that feared the word of
the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his
cattle flee into the houses." Let not an Egyptian take more care of his
beasts than Christians of their souls. Stormy days are coming, God
hath provided you a refuge, and given you seasonable premonitions,
and calls from heaven, to hasten into them before the times of
desolations come. The Lord help us to hear his calls and comply with
them, which will be as much our privilege, as it is our duty. And so
much for the fifth proposition, viz. That God's attributes, promises,
and providences are prepared for the security of his people in the
greatest distresses that befal them in the world.
PROPOSITION VI
That none but God's own people are taken into these chambers of
security, or can expect his special protection in evil times.
Sect I. THIS proposition describes and clears the qualified subject of
this privilege. God's own people, and none but such, can warrantably
claim special protection in evil times, and this is consonant to the
current account of scripture, Isa. 3:10, 11. "Say ye unto the righteous,
it shall be well with him. Wo to the wicked, it shall be ill with him."
He speaks concerning the day of Jerusalem's ruin, and Judah's fall,
as appears ver. 8. So great a difference will God make, even in this
world, betwixt the righteous and the wicked. In Nah. 1 you have also
a terrible day described, wherein Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon, the
most pleasant and fruitful places of the land shall languish, ver. 4.
The mountains shall quake, the hills melt, the earth, and those that
dwell therein, burnt up, ver. 5. The indignation and fury of God
poured out like fire, ver. 6. The privileged people in this terrible day
are God's own people, they only are taken into security, ver. 7. The
Lord is good, a strong-hold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth
them that trust in him, i.e. he so knoweth them, as to care and
provide for them in that evil day; and so throughout the whole
scripture, you shall find the promises of protection still made to the
people of God. When the Chaldean army, like a devouring fire, was
ready to seize upon the land, the sinners in Zion were afraid,
fearfulness surprized the hypocrites; for who among us (say they)
shall dwell with devouring fire, and everlasting burnings? Yes, saith
God, some there are that shall abide that day, viz. "He that walketh
righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he shall dwell on high, his place
of defence shall be the munition of rocks;" i.e. God will be a
sanctuary to them, when others shall be as stubble before the flames,
Isa. 33:14, 15, 16.
But for the right stating of this proposition, three things must be
heedfully regarded.
1. That all good men are not always exempted from the stroke of
outward calamities. In that sense the righteous may perish, and
merciful men be taken away; yea, they may perish in love, and be
taken away in mercy from the evil to come, Isa. 57:1, 2. Micah 7:1, 2.
2. That all wicked men are not always exposed to eternal miseries;
but "a just man may perish in his righteousness, and a wicked man
prolong his life in his wickedness," Eccles. 7:15.
3. But in this sense we are to understand the proposition, That none
but the people of God have right, by promise, to his special
protection in evil days, that all such shall either be preserved from
the stroke of calamities, or from the deadly sting, namely, eternal
ruin by them: though they should fall by the hands of enemies, yet
they die as Josiah did, in peace, 2 Kings 22:19, 20. If they be taken
away, it is but out of the way of greater mischiefs: Death doth but lay
the saints in their beds of rest, when it hurries away others into
everlasting miseries: If they be not excused from troubles, yet their
troubles are sure to be sanctified to their eternal good, Rom. 8:28.
And the Lord will be with them in their troubles, Psal. 91:15. Isa.
41:10.
Two things remain to be considered, before we finish this last
proposition: viz.
1. Who the people of God are?
2. Why this privilege is peculiar to them?
1. Who are the people of God? the scripture describes them two ways;
negatively and positively. Negatively, in opposition to those who are
not the people of God, but are, (1.) The servants of sin, obeying it in
the lusts of it, which the people of God neither are, nor dare to do,
Rom. 6:11, 12, &c. (2.) The men of this world have their portion in
this life, savouring and minding the things of the world only, whereas
the people of God are called out of the world, John 17:16. and
principally study and labour after the higher concernments of the
world to come, Rom. 8:5. (3.) The vassals of Satan, do his lusts, and
are in subjection to his power, Acts 26:18. Eph. 2:2. from which
bondage the people of God are made free. (4.) Nor yet are they their
own, living wholly to themselves, and seeking only their own ends, as
others do, 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. These, all these are not the people of God,
God will not own them for such; they but deceive themselves in
thinking and calling themselves so. But then positively, they are (1.)
A people regenerated, and born again, John 1:13. Their regeneration
gives them both the essence and denomination of the people of God:
It is as impossible to be the children of God without regeneration, as
it is to be the children of men without generation. (2.) They are a
people in covenant with God, Ezek. 16:8. "I entered into a covenant
with thee, and thou becamest mine." For in this covenant they give
themselves to the Lord, 2 Cor. 8:5. They avouch the Lord to be their
God, and make over themselves to him to be his people, Jer. 31:33.
devoting unto God all that they are, their souls and bodies, with
every faculty and member inclusively, Rom. 12:1. Luke 10:27. All that
they have, Rom. 11:36. all is dedicated and devoted to the Lord's use
and service, and these only are the people of God.
2. The last thing to be cleared is, Why the people of God, and none
beside them, have this peculiar privilege of an hiding place in the day
of trouble, and the grounds of it are,
1. Because they only have special interest in God, and propriety is the
ground on which they claim and expect protection: I am thine, save
me, Psal. 119:94. Upon this very ground it was that David
encouraged himself in one of his greatest plunges and distresses of
his whole life, 1 Sam. 30:6. "But David encouraged himself in the
Lord his God."
2. The people of God only are at peace with God; and where there is
no peace there can be no protection: The harbours and garrisons of
one kingdom never receive into their protection the subjects of
another kingdom that are in open hostility against them, Now there
is open war betwixt God and the wicked, Psal. 7:11. Zech. 11:8. Till
they have peace with God they can claim no protection from God.
3. The promises of protection are made only to God's people; and
where there is no promise, there can be no warrantable claim to
protection, 2 Cor. 1:20. 2 Pet. 1:4. Common providences may shelter
them for a time, but the saints only have the keys of the promises,
which open the chambers or attributes of God to them.
4. None but the people of God walk in the ways of God, and none but
those that walk in his way can, groundedly, expect his protection; for
so runs the promise, 2 Chron. 15:2. "I am with you whilst you are
with me," i.e. I am with you, by way of protection, direction, support,
and salvation, whilst you are with me in the duties of obedience, and
exercises of your graces; see that you love, fear, and obey me, and
then, depend upon it, I will look after and take care of you.
5. To conclude, The people of God only flee to God for sanctuary, and
cast themselves upon him for protection, Psal. 56:3. "At what time I
am afraid, I will trust in thee." Psal. 18:2. "The Lord is my rock, and
my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will
trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."
This their confidence in God, and reliance upon him, engage him to
protect them in their dangers, Isa. 26:3. All others put themselves
out of God's protection by making flesh their arm, and so giving the
honour of God to the creature, Jer. 17:5. And thus much for clearing
this last proposition also. All that remains will be dispatched in a
brief and close application of the point thus opened and confirmed.
CHAPTER XII
Containing the first use of the point in several informing consectaries
and deductions of truth from it.
Consectaries
Consect. I. FROM the whole of this discourse we may be informed
what a miserable and shiftless people all those will be in times of
trouble who have no special interest in God, or the promises. Sad and
lamentable was the case of Saul, as it is by himself expressed, 1 Sam.
28:15. "I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me,
and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more." It is a
wonderful and unaccountable thing, how carnal men and women
subsist and bear up, when their earthly props and hopes sink under
and fail them; so long as any creature-coin fort is left, thither they
will retreat for relief and succour: but if all fail, as quickly they may,
whither will they turn for comfort, having not a God nor a promise to
flee to? which the people of God can do when all things else fail
them, Heb. 3:17. Their different conditions in the day of trouble is
clearly expressed in Zeph. 2:3, 4. "Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the
earth which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek
meekness, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."
There is God's may-be, which is better security than man's shall-be
for their temporal deliverance: But what shall become of others that
have no refuge but in the creature? Why, the misery and shiftlessness
of their condition follows in the next words: "Gaza shall be forsaken,
and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noon-day,
and Ekron shall be rooted up;" i.e. All their earthly securities shall
fail them; their strong-holds-shall not secure them; they shall find no
shelter in the scorching heat of the day of trouble. Moab, Ashdod,
and Ekron have no more benefit by the promises made to Zion, than
the inhabitants of Rome can claim by the charter of London. If a
wicked or hypocritical person cry to God in his distress, he will not
hear him, Prov. 1:25, 26. Job 27:9. but will bid him go to his earthly
refuges which he hath chosen. If he go to the promises, knock at
those doors of hope, they cannot relieve him, being all made in Christ
to believers; if to the name and attributes of God all the doors are
shut against them, Psal. 34:16. There are seven dreadful aggravations
of a wicked man's troubles.
(1.) When troubles come upon him, the curse of God follows him into
his carnal refuges; Jer. 17:5. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the
Lord." Trouble is the arrow, and this curse the venom of the arrow,
which makes the wound incurable.
(2.) When troubles fall upon him from without, a guilty conscience
will terrify him from within; so that the mind can give no relief to the
body, but both sink under their own weights. It is not so with the
people of God, they have inward relief under outward pressures, 2
Cor. 4:16.
(3.) The gusts and storms of wicked men's troubles may blow them
into hell, and hurry them into eternal destruction: if death march
towards them upon the pale horse, hell always follows him, Rev. 6:8.
(4.) If troubles and distresses overwhelm their hearts, they can give
them no vent or ease by prayer, faith, and resignation to God, as his
people use to do, 1 Sam. 1:18.
(5.) When their troubles and distresses come, then come the hour
and power of their temptations; and, to shun sorrow, they will fall
into sin, having no promise to be kept in the hour of temptation, as
the saints have, Rev. 3:10.
(6.) When their troubles come, they will be left alone in the midst of
them: these are their burdens, and they alone must bear them. God's
gracious, comfortable, supporting presence is only with his own
people.
(7.) If trouble or death come upon them as a storm, they have no
anchor of hope to drop in the storm; the wicked is driven away in his
wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14:32. By
all which it appears, that a christless person is a most helpless and
shiftless creature in the day of trouble.
Consect. 2. Secondly, Hence it follows, That Christians ought not to
drop like other men in the day of trouble. A wicked man's boldness,
and a Christian's cowardliness, in times of affliction, are alike
ungrounded and uncomely. Why should thy heart, Christian,
despond and sink at this rate, upon the prospect of approaching
troubles? Are there not safe and comfortable chambers taken up, and
provided for thee against that day? Is not the name of the Lord a
strong tower, into which thou mayest run and be safe? The heart of a
good man, saith Chrysostom, should at all times be like the higher
heavens, serene, tranquil, and clear, whatever thunders and
lightnings, storms and tempests trouble and terrify the lower world.
If a man have a good roof over his head, where he can sit dry and
warm, what need he trouble himself to hear the winds roar, see the
lightnings flash, and the rains pour down without doors? Why this is
thy privilege, Christian; "A man (to wit the man Christ Jesus) shall
be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest;
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land," Isa. 32:2. Art thou in Christ, and in the covenant? give
me then one good reason for thy dejections in a day of trouble; or if
thou hast none to give, hearken to these reasons against it.
1. If thou be in Christ, thy sins are forgiven thee; and why should not
a pardoned soul be a cheerful soul in adversity? Afflictions may buz
and hum about thee, like bees that have lost their sting, but they can
never hurt thee.
2. If thou be in Christ, thy God is with thee in all thy troubles; and
how can thy heart sink or faint in such a presence? Let them that are
alone in troubles fail under them: but do not thou do so, who art
surrounded with Almighty power, grace, and love, Isa. 43:1, 2.
3. If thou be in Christ, thy greatest afflictions shall prove thy best
friends and benefactors, Rom. 8:28. Sure then thou art more afraid
than hurt; thou mistakest thy best friends for thy worst enemies;
thou and thy afflictions shall part more comfortably than you met.
4. If thou be in Christ, thy treasure is safe, thy eternal happiness is
out of the reach of all thine enemies, Luke 12:4. Luke 10:42. And if
that be safe, thou hast no cause to be sad; to droop and tremble at
the hazard of earthly comforts, whilst heavenly and eternal things are
safe, is as if a man that had gotten his pardon from the king, and had
it safe in his bosom, should be found weeping upon the way home,
because he hath lost his staff or glove. These reasons are strong
against the dejections of God's people under outward troubles; but
yet I am sensible that all the reasoning in the world will not prevent
their dejections, except they will take pains to clear up their interest
in God against such a day, Psal. 18:2. and will act their faith by way
of adherence and dependence upon God, in the want of former light
and evidence, Isa. 50:10. And lastly, that they keep their consciences
pure and inviolate, which will be a spring of comfort in the midst of
troubles, 2 Cor. 1:12.
3. Consect. Thirdly, It hence appears to be the greatest folly and
vanity in the world, to make any thing but God our refuge in the day
of trouble. This practice, as you heard but now, is under God's curse;
and that which is cursed of God can never be comfortable to us. It is
an honour peculiar to God, the right of heaven, and therefore cursed
sacrilege to bestow it on the creature. We read of some that make lies
their refuge, and hide themselves under falsehood, thinking when
the overflowing scourge comes, it shall not come nigh unto them, Isa.
28:15. They will trust to their wits and policies, they will fawn and
flatter, lie and dissemble, cast themselves into a thousand shapes and
forms to save themselves; but all in vain; the flood shall sweep away
their refuge of lies. Others make riches their trust and confidence,
Prov. 10:15. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city." If enemies
come, their money shall be their ransom: But oh! what a poor refuge
will this be! it may betray, but cannot secure them. Behold, saith
God, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard
silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it," Isa. 13:17. Riches
profit not in the day of wrath, Prov. 11:4. Job blessed God in the day
of his adversity, that he had not made gold his hope, or the fine gold
his confidence, Job 31:24. Bless, not thou thyself, that thou hast such
things to bestow thy hope and trust upon. Others make men their
refuge, especially great and powerful men: But to how little purpose
is it! Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help," Psal. 146:3, 4. They cannot keep their crowns upon
their heads, no, nor their heads upon their shoulders; the greatest
men are but dust, and what can dust do to dust? Three things
aggravate their misery, who misplace their confidence by bestowing
it on any creature, (1.) That creature will certainly deceive them; men
are deceitful men, Psal. 62:9. Riches are deceitful riches, 1 Tim. 6:17.
Every thing you lean on beside God will start aside like a deceitful
bow, Psal. 78:57. (2.) The disappointment of your hopes from the
creature will enflame your affliction, and greatly aggravate your
sorrow, 2 Kings 18:21. The broken reeds of Egypt will not only fail,
but pierce you. (3.) In a word, God will take none into his protection,
who make anything besides himself their hope and confidence; if we
fly from God to the creature, God will say, To the creature thou shalt
go; except I have thy dependence, thou shalt never have my
protection; where I have no honour, thou shalt have no comfort.
Consect. 4. Fourthly, The former discourse yields us also this
comfortable conclusion, That whatever confusions, desolations and
troubles be in the earth, the church and people of God can never be
wholly exterminated and destroyed, seeing such a secure refuge is
prepared for them of God, Psal. 102:28. "The children of thy servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."
Which is assigned as the true reason of its perpetuity and safety,
Psal. 48:3. "God is known in her palaces for a refuge." The church's
enemies have tried the utmost of their policies and powers in all ages
against it, but to no purpose: whilst they have been plotting and
persecuting, the preserved remnant have been singing their songs
upon Alamoth, even praises to their great Preserver; though they
have no external, visible defence, yet are they as safe as salvation
itself can make them, "for salvation will God appoint for walls and
bulwarks," Isa. 26:1, 2. Four things are exceeding remarkable in the
church's preservation: (1.) No people were ever so fiercely opposed
by the powers of this world, "The kings of the earth have set
themselves, and the rulers have taken counsel together," Psal. 2:2.
All methods and artifices have been tried, sometimes to jeer and
scoff them out of their religion, so did the apostate Julian; and
sometimes by cruel tortures to affright them from their religion; the
variety, and more than barbarous inhumanity whereof the church-
histories gives us a sad and amazing account. (2.) Under these cruel
persecutions they have seemed to be utterly lost, to the eye of sense
and reason; "I am left alone, said Elijah, and they seek my life," 1
Kings 19:10. "By whom, Lord, shall Jacob arise, (said Amos) for he is
very small?" Amos 7:2. (3.) Notwithstanding all which, the church
hath out-lived all its dangers; it is the true Phœnix which hath out-
lived the deluge. (4.) Such deliverances are proper and peculiar to
the church alone; no people, besides the people of God, have such
salvations upon record. The great and famous monarchies of the
world have dashed one another to pieces, like earthen potsheards*.
And all this by virtue of that promise, Jer. 30:11. "For I am with thee,
saith the Lord, to save thee; though I make a full end of all nations
whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee."
Consect. 5. Fifthly, to conclude, If this be so, then it is a deep and
dangerous policy of Satan to shut up our refuge in God against us, as
much as may be, in times of trouble. Satan, like a cunning fowler,
despairs of getting the birds in his net, except he can beat them out
of their coverts; it is therefore his great design, to estrange and
alienate the saints from their God, as much as he can, thereby to cut
off their retreat to him in times of trouble; a mischief which the
people of God have always vehemently deprecated, Psal. 102:2. Jer.
17:17. and oh that we would beware of it, and shun this mischief by
our seasonable preventing watchfulness. There are, among others,
three special projects of Satan, whereby he manages this mischievous
design against the people of God.
1. By drawing their consciences under guilt, on purpose to destroy
the liberty, freedom, and child-like confidence of their souls in their
addresses to God. This, if any thing in the world, will do it, Job 11:14,
15. What a loss will that poor soul be at, in times of trouble, whose
grumbling and condemning conscience will not suffer him to look up
cheerfully and believingly in the face of its God and father, having
lost its ancient freedom at the throne of grace?
2. By prevailing with them to neglect and intermit the course of their
daily duties, and thereby to let down their communion with God,
and, in a great measure, lose their acquaintance with, him. This is a
dangerous policy of the devil, and an unspeakable prejudice to the
soul. Oh Christian! take heed of a lazy, slothful spirit, or a vain and
earthly heart, which will easily suffer the duties of religion to be
jostled aside and put by for every trivial occasion; especially beware
of slight, formal, and dead-hearted performances of duty, which is
little better than the intermission of them; it may, indeed, prevent
the scandal, but can never give thee the comfort of religion.
3. By beclouding their interest in God, and darkening their titles and
evidences, by thick clouds of doubts and fears. This is the sad case of
many a poor Christian in a day of trouble; without are fightings, and
within are fears. Brethren, I beseech you, think often what those
things are, which usually put men into such frights and straits, when
imminent dangers stare them in the face; what it is that daunts and
damps the hearts of Christians at such times; and as you value the
peace and freedom of your souls with God, give not matter for your
consciences to reproach you of mis-spent time, indulged sins,
neglected duties, formality or hypocrisy in duties, sinister and by-
ends in your transactions with God or man: preserve the purity and
peace of your consciences, as you would preserve your two eyes; if by
such wiles the devil cannot bar you from your God, or shut up your
refuge in him, your outward troubles can do you no hurt.
The second use, of direction and advice.
Sect. II. The providences of God, in these days, giving us such loud
warnings of approaching judgment; how are all that are wise in
heart, and understanding of the times, now more especially
concerned to clear their interest in these blessed attributes of God,
which have here been opened, as their only refuge in the evil day. Let
me therefore persuade and press you to betake yourselves to God,
your refuge and strong-hold in trouble, and that more especially in
these two great duties, viz.
1. Of fervent supplication.
2. Of universal resignation.
1. Betake yourselves to God by fervent prayer and supplication. Let
me say of these times, as holy Mr. Perkins did of his*; "These are no
times for Christians to contend and strive one with another, but with
their united cries to strive with God;" and among other requests,
strongly to enforce and follow home that of David, Psal. 71:2, 3.
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline
thine ear unto me, and save me; be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort." That is a true and weighty
observation of Austin†, "A refuge is not to be found in trouble, except
it be provided before-hand in peace." "For this (saith the Psalmist)
shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou
mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not
come nigh unto him," Psal. 22:6. Had not Noah prepared and
secured himself in the ark, before the floods of great waters came, he
had not sat, as he did, mediis tranquillus in undis; sleeping quietly,
when others were perishing in the waters. Gather yourselves
therefore together, before the decree bring forth; seek the Lord, all ye
meek of the earth; be more frequent and more fervent in prayer, now
than ever; you have all the encouragements in the world to incite you
to this duty: the nature of your God is exceeding pitiful, tender, and
compassionate, James 5:11. The endeared relations betwixt God and
you give singular encouragement of success: shall not God hear his
own elect, which cry unto him day and night? Luke 18:7. The sweet
returns and answers of former prayers are so many motives and
encouragements to follow close that profitable duty, Psal. 51:1, 2, 3.
And above all, your prevalent Advocate in the heavens should
encourage you to come frequently and boldly to the throne of grace,
"that you may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of
need," Heb. 4:16. In two things I shall briefly offer a few directions
here, viz.
1. As to the matter of prayer.
2. As to the manner of prayer.
1. As to the matter of prayer, I mean such as the state and condition
of the times, now more especially, suggest.
(1.) Unite your prayers, and cry mightily to the Lord, that if it be his
good pleasure, this cup of wrath, which seems to be mingled and
prepared, may pass from his people. Now cry to God, as they are
directed to do, Joel 2:17. "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not
thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them,
wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God, O
pray, that England may not be delivered into the hands of blood-
thirsty Papists, that the golden candlestick may not be removed, that
idolatry may not return into those places where God hath been so
sweetly worshipped; that a land so peculiarly blessed with gospel-
light, wherein so many thousand sons and daughters have been born
to God, may not, at last, become an Aceldama, a great shambles, to
quarter out the limbs of his dear saints: that the pleasant plant of
reformation, planted with his own right-hand, and watered with so
many tears, yea, with so much blood, may not, at last, be rooted up
by the wild boar of the forest!
(2.) Pray indefinitely, that you may be kept from the sins and
temptations of the times. O watch and pray, that you enter not into
temptation; if you cannot prevail with God to turn away his anger,
yet be importunate with him that you may be kept from sin; that if
you lose your outward peace, you may be able to keep inward peace;
that you may never sacrifice your consciences, to save your flesh; that
you may never fall under the displeasure of God, to avoid the rage of
men. Ah friends! we little think what a fearful havock an hour of
temptation will make in such a professing nation as this is; then shall
many be offended, Mat. 24:10. O pray, that you may never give
offence to others, by scandal, or take offence yourselves at the ways
of God, whatever sufferings and sharp trials shall come.
(3.) Pray earnestly for the sanctification of all your troubles to your
eternal good; an unsanctified comfort never did any man good, and a
sanctified trouble never did any man hurt; be more earnest therefore
with God, rather to have your troubles sanctified than prevented; to
get the blessing than to avoid the smart of them; if they cannot be
turned away from you, pray they may be turned to your salvation.
2. Betake yourselves to God, your refuge, by faith, resigning and
committing all into his hands, "Now the just shall live by faith," Heb.
10:38. The more you can trust God, the more you secure yourselves
from danger; he that can live by faith shall never die by fear; and be
sure to inform yourselves well in two things, viz.
1. What it is to trust God over all.
2. What grounds you have so to do.
1. Be well instructed in the nature of this duty; there are six things
imported in such acts of resignation.
1. An awakened sense of our dangers and hazards. "At what time I
am afraid, I will trust in thee," Psal. 56:3. Suffering times are
resigning times, 1 Pet. 4:19 "Let them that suffer according to the will
of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as
unto a faithful Creator.". And the greater and nearer our dangers are,
the more frequent and vigorous should the actings of our faith this
way be: Be not far from me, for trouble is near.
2. Resignation to God necessarily implies our renunciation and
disclaiming of all other refuges. "Ashur shall not save us, we will not
ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our
hands, ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy," Hos.
14:3. He that relies upon God must cease from man; resignation to
God excludes not the use of lawful means, but it doth exclude
dependence upon them.
3. Resignation to God is always grounded upon an interest in God;
we have no warrant nor encouragement to expect protection from
him in time of trouble, except we can come to him as children to a
father: It is the filial relation that gives encouragement to this
fiducial resignation; and the clearer that relation and interest is, the
more bold and confident those acts of faith will be; Psal. 86:2.
"Preserve my soul, for I am holy: O thou, my "God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee." And again, Psal. 119:94. "I am thine, save me."
I speak not here of the first act of faith which flows not from an
interest, but gives the soul an interest in God. Nor do I say, that poor,
doubting, and timorous believers, whose interest in him is dark and
dubious, have no warrant to resign themselves and their
concernments into his hands; for it is both their right and duty to do
it: but certainly the clearer our interest is, the more facile and
comfortable will those acts be.
4. The committing acts of faith imply a full acknowledgment and
owning of God's power to protect us, be the danger never so
imminent; Psal. 31:15. "My times are in thy hand, deliver me from
the hands of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me;" q. d.
O Lord, I am fully satisfied, my life is not at the disposal of mine
enemies; it is not in their hands, but in thine; all the traps and snares
they lay for it shall not shorten one minute of my time; I know thine
hand is fully able to protect me, and therefore into thine hands I
resign myself and all I have.
5. Resignation involves in it an expectation of help and safety from
God, when we see no way of security from men. "O Lord, saith
Jehoshaphat, We have no might, nor strength, neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are unto thee," 2 Chron. 20:12. So David, Psal.
62:5, 6. "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is
from him: he only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I
shall not be moved."
6. Resignation to God implies the leaving of ourselves, and our
concernments with him, to be disposed of according to his good
pleasure; the resigning soul desires the Lord to do with him what he
will, and is content to take what lot Divine pleasure shall cast for
him: 2 Sam. 15:25. "And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark
of God into the city; if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he
will bring me again, and shew me both it and his habitation; but if he
thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to
me as seemeth good unto him." And so much of the nature of this
duty, that we may understand what to do.
2. Next, let me shew you what encouragements you that are the
people of God have to this duty; and they will appear to be great and
many.
1. The sovereignty and absolute dominion of God over all creatures is
a singular encouragement to commit ourselves into his hands, and
trust him over all, Psal. 59:9. "Because of his strength will I wait
upon thee; for God is my defence." If a man were in danger amidst a
great army of rude and insolent soldiers, and were to put himself
under the protection of any one, it would be his wisdom to chuse to
do it under the general, who had all the soldiers of his army at his
beck. Christian, thy God, into whose hands thou committest thyself
is Lord-general of all the hosts and armies in heaven and earth; how
safe must thou then be in his hands?
2. The unsearchable and perfect wisdom of God is a mighty
encouragement to commit ourselves into his hands; With him is
plenteous redemption, Psal. 130 ult. i.e. Choice and variety of ways
and methods to save his people; we are, but God never is, at a loss to
find a door for our escape, 2 Pet. 2:9. "The Lord knoweth "how to
deliver the godly out of temptation."
3. The infinite tenderness and compassionateness of our God, is a
sweet encouragement to resign and commit ourselves and all we
have into his hands; his mercy is incomparably tender towards his
people, infinitely beyond whatever any creature felt stirring in its
own bowels towards another that came out of its bowels, Isa. 49:15.
This compassion of God engageth the two fore-mentioned attributes,
viz. his power and wisdom for the preservation and relief of his
people, as often as distresses befal them. Yea,
4. The very distresses his people are in, do, as it were, awake the
Almighty power of God for their defence and rescue; our distresses
are not only proper seasons, but powerful motives to his saving
power, Deut. 32:36. "For the Lord shall judge his people, "and repent
himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone, and
there is none shut up or left." God makes it an argument to himself,
and his people plead it as an argument with him, "be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help."
5. We have already committed greater and weightier concernments
into his hand than the dearest interest we have in this world; we have
entrusted our souls with him, 1 Pet. 4:19. 2 Tim. 1:12. Well therefore
may we commit the lesser, who have entrusted the greater with him:
What are our lives, liberties, estates, and relations, compared with
our souls, and the eternal safety and happiness of them!
6. The committing act of faith is the great and only expedient to
procure and secure the peace and tranquillity of our minds, amidst
all the distractions and troubles of the present world; the greatest
part of our affliction and trouble in such days is from the working of
our own thoughts; these torments from within are worse than any
from without; and the resignation of all to God by faith is their best
and only cure, Prov. 16:3. "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy
thoughts shall be established." A blessed calmness of mind, a sweet
tranquillity and settlement of thoughts follow immediately hereupon,
Psal. 94:19. Oh then leave all with God, and quietly expect a
comfortable issue: and for the better settlement and security of thy
peace in times of distraction and trouble, I beseech thee, reader,
carefully to watch and guard against these two evils.
Cautions
Caution 1. Beware of infidelity or distrustfulness of God and his
promises which secretly lurks in thy heart, and is very apt to bewry
itself when great distresses and troubles befal thee. Thou wilt know it
by such symptoms as these: 1. In an over-hasty and eager desire after
present deliverance, Isa. 51:14. "The captive exile hasteneth that he
may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his
bread should fail." The less faith, always the more impatience; and
the more ability to believe, the more patience to wait. 2. It will
discover itself in our readiness to close with, and catch at sinful
mediums and methods of deliverance, Isa. 30:15, 16. And this is the
handle of temptation, and occasion of apostasy. But lie that believeth
will not make haste, Isa. 26:18. No more haste than good speed. 3. It
will shew itself in distracting cares and fears about events, which will
rack the mind with various and endless tortures.
Caution 2. Beware of dejection and despondency of mind in evil
times; take heed of a poor low spirit that will presently sink and give
up its hope upon every appearance and face of trouble; it is a promise
made unto the righteous, Psal. 112:7. "He shall not be afraid of evil
tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." The trusting of God
fixes the heart, and the fixing of the heart fortifies it against fear: But
I know what many poor Christians will say in this case; their
timorousness and despondency arise not so much from the greatness
of outward evils, as from the darkness and doubtfulness of their
spiritual and inward condition, which, doubtless, is the very truth of
the case; which brings me to the last use of this point.
Use the third.
Search and examine your hearts, Christians, whether those graces
and qualifications, to which God hath promised protection in evil
times, may not be found upon an impartial search in your hearts;
amongst which, I will single out three principal ones, as the proper
matters of your self-examination, viz.
1. Uprightness of heart and way.
2. Humiliation for your own and other's sins.
3. Righteousness in doing, and meekness in suffering the will of God.
1. Uprightness and integrity of heart and way. To this qualification
belong many sweet promises of protection; such is that, Prov. 2:7.
"He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly," Psal 7:10. "My defence
is of God, which saveth the upright in heart." If your hearts be true to
God, these promises shall be truly performed to you? but beware you
deceive not yourselves in so great a point as this is. Thy heart cannot
be an upright heart, except, (1.) It be a renewed heart; the natural
heart is always a false heart; it is only regeneration that gives the
heart a right temper and frame; all the duties and labours in the
world can never keep the heart right in its course, which is not first
set right for God, by a principle of renovation. (2.) We cannot judge
ourselves upright, except uprightness be the settled frame and
standing bent of our hearts, Psal. 119:112, 117. It is not our integrity
in one or two single actions, but in the general course, and complex
frame of our lives and ways, that will prove our integrity to God. (3.)
Then may we reckon ourselves upright, when the dread and awe of
God's all-seeing eye keeps our hearts and steps from turning aside to
iniquity, Gen. 39:9. 2 Chron. 2:17. That is a sincere and upright heart
indeed, that finds itself at all times, and in all places, overawed from
sin, by the eye of God upon him. (4.) That man's heart also is upright
with God, who purely aims at, and designs the glory of God, as the
scope and end of his life and actions, who lives not up to himself,
neither acts ultimately and principally for himself, but lives to God,
as a person dedicated and devoted to him, Rom. 14:7. (5.) That heart
also is upright with God, which governs itself, and its ways, by the
directions and rules of the word, Psal. 119:11, 24, 133. Happy is that
soul that finds such evidences of integrity in itself, when it is brought
to the trial of it at the bar of the word, Heb. 4:12. at the bar of
conscience, 2 Cor. 1:12. at the bar of affliction, Psal. 119:87. and at
the bar of strong temptations, Gen. 39:9. The eyes of the Lord shall
run to and fro through the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the
behalf of such whose hearts are thus perfect towards him.
2. Another gracious qualification, clearing the soul's title to God's
special protection in the worst and most dangerous times, is true
humiliation for our own and other men's sins: "Go, set a mark, saith
God, upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof," Ezek. 9:4. These
that thus mourn, when others laugh, shall laugh when others mourn.
Lot was the only mourner in Sodom, and he was the only person
exempted from destruction in the ruin and overthrow thereof. 2 Pet.
2:7. That is a sweet and blessed privilege mentioned in Isa. 66:10.
"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her;
rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her; that ye may suck
and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, that ye may
milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory." Be
contented, Christians, to bear your part in Sion's groans and
sorrows; you may live to bear your part in her triumphs and songs of
deliverance: It is an argument of the true publicness and tenderness
of your spirits for the present, and as sweet a sign as can appear upon
your souls, that you are reserved for better days.
3. Righteousness in doing, and meekness in suffering the will of God,
is another mark or note, distinguishing and describing those persons
whom God will preserve in the evil day. You have both these together
in Zeph. 2:3. "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have
wrought his judgments; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may
be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." The eyes of the Lord
are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, 1
Pet. 3:12. If righteousness brings you into danger, the righteous God
will take care of you in that danger, and bring you out of it. Oh! it is a
singular comfort, when a man can say, It was not my sin, but my
duty, that brought me into trouble; this affliction met me in the path
and way of my duty; it is for thy sake, O Lord, that I am in trouble; as
the martyr that held up the bible at the stake, saying, This hath
brought me hither.
To conclude: Manage all your sufferings for Christ, with christian
meekness: As righteousness must bring you into them, so meekness
must carry you through them; if you avenge yourselves, you take the
cause out of God's hand into your own; but the meek Christian leaves
it to the Lord, and shall never have cause to repent of his so doing. If
thou have an upright heart with God, a tender and mournful heart
for sin, and thou suffer with meekness for righteousness sake, thou
art one of those souls to whom that sweet voice is directed in my text,
—
Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the
indignation be overpast.
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The Righteous Man's Refuge, by John Flavel, Copyright © 2020
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